


Zaldrize

by RogueTiger



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel!Waverly, Bobo is... good???, Dragon!Haught, F/F, Fake Science, Good dad Nedley
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2020-11-28 12:01:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 39,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20966228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogueTiger/pseuds/RogueTiger
Summary: In 1989, doctors working for Black Badge impregnated thirty women across America with eggs altered with dragon DNA as part of Project Zaldrize. In Woodridge, Illinois, Dr Devineaux carried out the last of the procedures for a young couple who are not who they say they are. That same night, Devineaux is killed by Black Badge operatives that are determined to shut down the project and the couple escape to start a new life but events eventually lead their young daughter, Nicole, to Purgatory and into the hearts and lives of the Nedley's and the Earps.akaI hate summaries.A retelling of the story we all know with some major differences.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My muses demanded that I should get this down so you all get to see this (such as it is).
> 
> There will (when I get round to adding to it) be a lot of time jumps as it goes through major event in their lives (mostly Nicole's) that lead them all being together in this version of Purgatory.

## May 1989

“Thank you, Doctor Devineaux.”

“You are most welcome, Mrs Daniels,” he brushed the young woman’s thanks off with an ease he had practised hard to perfect and extracted his gloved hand from her enthusiastic handshake. Resisting the urge to wipe his hand off, he ushered her and her husband towards the exit of the fertility clinic. “The procedure went well but, don’t forget, if you have any concerns—”

With hardening eyes, he watched as they crossed the stillness of the rain-soaked carpark at the back of the clinic. Their bodies moved from one pool of light to the other as they made their way out onto the sidewalk that led back into a more populated area of town. Once they were out of sight, he locking the clinic doors with a decisive twist of his wrist and turned off the outside lights, throwing the carpark into darkness.

He stood there for a moment, listening to the hum of the air conditioning and machinery within the building as he watched every patch of darkness to make sure that nothing moved that shouldn’t be there. With a splash against the window to signal its return, the rain started falling again. The first drops soon turning into a torrent that drummed upon the roof and windows and created fast-flowing streams that poured down the slope of the carpark.

The surgical mask he was wearing was stifling and itchy but he kept it in place as he made his way back down the corridor past the paintings and posters of babies and families that adorned that more family-friendly side of the clinics business where babies were made. As opposed to the other more sombrely decorated areas where unwanted pregnancies were dealt with.

Fertility on one side, abortions on the other. He had to admire them for cornering the market and for giving them just what Black Badge needed.

Pushing open the door to the small doctor’s office he stepped over the body of the clinics' real doctor lying upon the floor and stripped off his borrowed clothing as he made his way over to the desk and started gathering up the last of the paperwork and equipment he had brought with him.

“Have they gone?”

“Yes.”

“Thank fuck for that! I’ve had enough of this place.” With disdain curling her lips, she shrugged off the lab coat she had been forced to wear for the past couple of months while playing the part of a caring nurse in order to stake out the clinic to find just the right woman, and tossed it onto the floor along with the surgical mask and the ridiculous hat.

“Clean room policy, Agent Argent,” Devineaux reminded her curtly. She glowered at him dangerously but relented and picked everything up and put them upon the neat pile of his own ready to be destroyed to clear up any evidence. “Is everything in place?”

“Yeah. Moved all the bodies to match the cover story. The anti-abortionists make our job too easy sometimes.”

“Don’t knock it, Argent. For every easy cover-up, there’s ten more that aren’t.”

“This is the last one though, right?”

“Mhm. This part of the trial is complete. Now we just have to wait for nine-months and reap the rewards of our labour—”

“And hers.”

“Indeed,” he grimaced at her pun. “Then the next phase of _Project Zaldrize_ can start.”

“And there’s enough?” Argent asked with a feigned air of indifference as she poured a trail of accelerant across the floor and over the body.

Schooling his face, Devineaux tapped his finger against the edge of the folder containing all the details of the woman he had impregnated with what she had assumed was an egg fertilized by her husband. “Mrs Daniels is now the host of the thirtieth and last of the eggs spliced with dragon DNA. There _are_ no more in existence.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Argent staring at the briefcase.

Her breathing grew ragged as his own slowed as he placed the folder in the open briefcase. “Tell me, Argent, who do you work for really?” he asked as he heard the familiar sound of a gun cocking within her hand.

“I serve the Cult of Bulshar,” she grinned in pride. “Now, hand over the folder.”

Devineaux was no fool. He knew what people saw when they looked at him. A middle-aged man with a receding hairline; nondescript features and pale blue eyes that were lost behind the thick black frames of his glasses and a thin-framed body that looked like it would break in a stiff breeze. What no one saw was that he put as much time into keeping his body thin and ready for action as he’d done training to be a doctor. What they never suspected was that someone that looked like he did was actually one of Black Badge’s most prolific assassins.

Reaching into the briefcase, Devineaux’s fingers grazed across the manila folder and the cold metal of the gun hidden beneath it. He saw the moment that Argent’s expression changed as she realised what he was doing and the gun she had tucked against her side started to come up.

It was too late though. For her. Blood bloomed across her chest as his first shot struck the centre of her mass and then her head snapped back; brain matter and blood spraying out from the back of her head as the next shot caught her right between her pale eyes.

Her body fell back, thudding against the cheap linoleum floor as her blood pooled and mingled with the accelerant she had poured.

It had always been his intention to kill her. After all, she had been employed at the clinic and her going missing could have ruined the anti-abortionist story. What he hadn’t intended was that he would have to ruin a perfectly good briefcase by shooting her through it.

Huffing in frustration, he closed the damaged lid and picked up the briefcase. He quickly patted her down, finding the lighter in her pocket as he made sure she wasn’t carrying anything that might tie her in with himself or Black Badge but there was nothing. Not even anything that might hint as to what the Cult of Bulshar was.

Bulshar.

He locked the name away in his memory for when he got back to the nearest black site. If this Cult of Bulshar was interested in _Project Zaldrize_, they needed to know why so they could protect their investment.

Dragons.

Ten years ago, he would have called anyone that had mentioned dragons a fool or just crazy. But, he had been witness to many things since Black Badge had recruited him that had forced him to rethink what he knew and believed in. And yet, amongst the demons, witches and vampires that had become the norm, dragons had stayed in the realm of myths and stories.

Until one had been found.

After thousands of years in a state of hibernation deep beneath the ground in the chamber of a long-dormant volcano, the thing that had killed it was the mistreatment of the men that had found it.

By the time he had gotten there, the magnificent creature was breathing its last breath, its time weakened body broken riddled with wounds as it had begged for release. In the end, all he could do was collect samples from its body and kill the fools that had destroyed what was probably the last of its kind.

Until now.

Hopefully.

Walking back through the clinic towards the exit, Devineaux flicked his thumb across the wheel of the lighter and pressed the tiny flame to the posters on the walls and the ends of carefully laid out trails of accelerants. Argent had turned out to be a traitor but her work remained true and as he exited the building and walked away through the rain to where his car was parked on a secluded street he could hear the crackle and pop of the flames as they consumed the building and any evidence that had been there. And if the police should happen to find and interview the Daniels, they had as much to hide as he did and he had made sure that they had never seen his face so they couldn’t identify him.

He was a ghost. A benevolent ghost that had ridden in after clinic hours and helped them achieve their goal of pregnancy when the clinic had deemed them unsuitable.

Time would tell as to if any of the thirty eggs Black Badge had impregnated selected women across America with would survive to be born. He had a good feeling about the Daniels one though. The girl had been young, twenty-two according to the details she had given but she looked younger. And she was strong, far better than any of the ones the others had selected in his opinion and _he_ had been the one to do the procedure and he knew his worth as doctor.

Taking a step back wasn’t going to be easy. He would much rather have taken her into one of the black sites right then so he could control all aspects of the experiment but he had been ordered to pull back and let nature take its course and allow other agents to be there to collect data and scans during the pregnancy.

He _would_ get her back closer to the due date though, he would make sure of that. And then the baby would be his.

His very own dragon to train!

He didn’t care what plans Black Badge had for the other, what military application they saw for them, this one would be his!

Rain poured down in a rapid drumming upon his car that the blades of his wipers struggled to clear as he made his way through the streets. He wanted, needed, to be out of the city as quickly as he could before his presence in the small town drew attention but it felt like the weather had other ideas. Stretching his fingers, he forced his body to relax and resigned himself to his current, slower speed.

In his profession, there were always risks but it was better to be safe than sorry.

As he pulled up at a set of lights that were annoyingly on red, he heard the whoop and holler of sirens screaming into the night that signalled that someone had finally reported the fire at the clinic. Minutes later, the lone engine screamed through the junction without slowing, the big vehicle rocking his car as it passed on its way to get to the orange and red glow he could see reflected in his rear-view mirror.

He grinned, knowing that it didn’t matter how fast they went, they were too late. They had been from the moment he had picked the clinic in Woodridge, Illinois because of its size and location close to Black Badge’s site beneath the Argonne National Laboratory within the Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve.

The laboratory served as a convenient cover. The people that walked its halls and worked within its vast laboratories, with their minds and attention fixed on technological problems in artificial intelligence and nanotechnology had no idea that beneath their feet lay levels dedicated to researching, containing and destroying the supernatural and paranormal.

Before he reached the black site though, Devineaux had a problem he needed to deal with. One that had been shining bright headlights carelessly into his mirrors for a couple of miles. Turning the wheel, he picked a road that would take him on a less direct route past the Greene Valley Forest Preserve.

The bright lights of the Cinemark movie theatre with its modern take on an art deco façade twinkled behind the curtain of rain, casting rainbows across the wet surface of the road that was as annoyingly bright as the headlights following him.

There was a chance that it wasn’t a tail at all but Devineaux hadn’t stayed alive as long as he had by taking chances. He sped up gradually so as not to alert them that he had spotted their amateurish attempts to follow him and they matched his speed, keeping the same amount of distance between them as the buildings and houses thinned out to a more open landscape around Hawthorne Hill Park.

Speeding up, he turned off at the next junction, taking the route even further away from the houses. With one hand busy on the wheel and his eyes on the road and his mirrors, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his weapon.

There was a secluded carpark coming up at the end of the reserve. He would turn in there and deal with them if they followed.

The headlights burned brighter as the vehicle suddenly sped up, outpacing the small, nondescript sedan he had picked so that it wouldn’t draw attention. Hands working nimbly, he steadied his car as his pursuers rammed into the back of the car hard enough to make his seatbelt tighten across his chest. Thumbing off the safety on his weapon, he started to turn enough to fire through the back window but as he did so, his vision was filled by the sudden brightness of lights as another car shot out of a small side road and slammed into the passenger side.

Time seemed to slow as the car crumpled around the impact, crushing his arm between the seats as the car tumbled across the road and came to a halt upside down on the grassy verge on the other side of the road.

The harsh scent of fuel filled the car and Devineaux felt it dripping down onto his body, stinging where it found the many cuts left by flying glass and the metal that had punched through his thigh, severing his femoral artery. He cried out harshly as he tried to move his right arm and found it trapped and mangled between the seats, the gun he had been holding lost to the twisted interior of the car or tossed out onto the road.

Through the shattered windscreen, Devineaux saw the two vehicles come to a halt and figures spill from within. They were garbed in black tactical uniforms and holding assault rifles; the standard uniform of mercenaries the world over.

Only… he recognised them.

He recognised them because he worked with them in Black Badge. While they had never gone on missions together, he knew Agent Moody well enough to share pleasantries in passing.

“Get the paperwork! We need to find out who that last one is!”

Devineaux blinked through the fuel and blood streaming down his face and saw his briefcase where it had become lodged between the dashboard and the roof where they had compacted together and his gun where it had landed out of reach, both sitting in pools of fuel. With a hand trembling from pain and loss of blood, he reached into his jacket and closed his hand around the lighter.

He had no love for the Daniels. No interest in them other than for what lay within the womb of the woman.

It was Black Badge that had been his life for years, they had fed and clothed him and in return, he had given them his skills both as a doctor and as an assassin and never once questioned them.

But, they had betrayed him! Killed him!

He didn’t see who reached for the briefcase but he waited until they had almost crawled inside before flicking his thumb weakly across the lighter again and again.

“Shit! No! Get me out of here!”

Devineaux heard the whoosh of flames and the scream of the agent as they burst up in his face before he could scramble out of the car but he was already past feeling anything as they licked across his own body and consumed his flesh and the contents of the briefcase.

**********

“Son of a bitch!” Lifting his arm, Moody shielded his face against the heat of the flames as the car burned along with the agent whose legs finally stopped kicking and scrabbling at the dirt and grass and grew still.

“Now what?”

“We follow any trail we can. Someone somewhere will have talked or left something.”

“Devineaux was always too careful in his work.”

“Even someone like Devineaux can slip up!” Moody bit back with a wave of his hand to show how the mighty Devineaux had ended up. “Project Zaldrize was ill-conceived and dangerous and I’m glad the Director finally saw that before it was too late.” He had a much safer application in mind for the remainder of the DNA collected from the dragon and other creatures at their disposal. One that didn’t involve creating a whole new species without knowing what they could be capable of or where their loyalties lay.

The remnants of Project Zaldrize were already being disposed of and the only thread left loose was the last couple.

Through the darkness, Moody eyed a smouldering piece of paper as it fluttered and tumbled through the air. Catching it beneath the toe of his boot, he looked down and grinned when he saw the name and address upon the paper.

“Well, well, looks like the trail came to us. Time to pay Mr and Mrs Daniels a visit.”

**********

“Are you sure you want to do this, Dee? It’s not too late if you want to change your mind. We could settle down here just as easily.”

Rather than answer the question her boyfriend seemed determined to ask every five minutes, Dee scooted along the worn seat of the old camper van and took his larger hand within her own, and placed it upon her abdomen. His eyes softened, his lips curving up into a soft smiled of wonder even though what grew within her still felt more like a hope and a wish than a reality.

“I am very sure, Nick. I was sure the moment I first saw you move in next door and I’ve been sure every moment since. The only regret I’ve ever had is that we couldn’t leave that hellhole sooner.” She pressed his hand closer to her, linking their fingers together in fear that her words might make him pull back from her and the child they had been forced to conceive by unconventional means because of the cruel fists of his father that had left him all but sterile.

“Okay. Where do you want to head to?”

“Where ever the road takes us. You promised me a life of freedom, remember? But maybe with a stop where we can really get married along the way?” She chuckled at the memory of how difficult it had been to remember to respond to the fake name they had picked out for their appointments at the fertility clinic. It was only one town over from where they had come from and neither had felt comfortable using their real names.

“Sounds good to me, future Mrs Haught… and baby Haught.” Leaning over as best as he could in the confines of the camper van, Nick first pressed a kiss to Dee’s abdomen in the vague area he guessed his baby lay, before claiming her lips in a soft kiss.

They were too young to be doing any of this according to the law. But the law didn’t know them and how they had been forced to grow up to protect themselves against abusive parents. And as the law was unwilling to protect them, they would continue to protect each other.

Starting up the camper, Nick willed the old thing not to kangaroo jump too much and expose his inexperience as they started off down the road to their new life together as a family.

“Look out!”

“Holy shit!” Nick gripped the wheel tighter as they watched two very beaten up, black SUV’s speed down the road and race through a set of lights that were already on amber.

“Glad we’re not going in their direction,” Dee shook her head as Nick turned the van onto the main road out of town. “What do you think of Canada? I’ve always wanted to see the Great White North.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN - Place names mentioned are real (apart from the clinic) but I picked them out on Google maps so they should be taken lightly.
> 
> Virtual cookies for anyone that knows where the title comes from ;)
> 
> ^^^ not a clue


	2. Chapter 2

## 12th Sept 1989

“Nick! Stop the van! Pull over!”

Dee braced herself against the plastic of the dashboard, her hand sliding against the touch worn surface as Nick responded a little vigorously to her shout with a heavy foot on the brake and the old campervan responded a little late and a bit too enthusiastically as it always did. The worn tyres skidded upon the gravel and dust built up at the side of the road, sending Dee’s heart clattering against the cage of her ribs as the belt tightened across her shoulder and held her fast.

Even though she was used to the strange ways of the vehicle and had come to trust Nick behind the wheel of it, she still swatted him across the shoulder with one hand while the other cradled the sizable bump where their baby rested.

“Hey!” Nick rubbed his shoulder where the sting on Dee’s slap settled into his flesh.

“I said pull over, not pitch us down a ditch!” She admonished him.

“What’s wrong? Is it the baby?” Panic burst through Nick in hot and cold waves that brought sweat to his brow at the very thought and rendered his fingers useless as he struggled to unfasten his seatbelt and tried to get closer at the same time.

“Hey, calm down, Nick.” Capturing his hand, Dee quickly placed it over her baby bump. “I’m fine. We’re fine,” she assured him. He sagged against the belt still holding him in his seat, his hands cupping her as their baby kicked against the palm of his hand. “I just saw a truck pulled off the road back there with the door open. Figured way out here it could be someone in trouble.”

“A truck?” Nick tried to look back down the road using the side mirrors but even if the angle was right, he could barely see through the heavy morning mist blanketing the landscape in a shroud of white taller than the roof of their camper. “You’re okay though?” She gave a nod and a wide smile that had the dimples he loved popping beside her mouth. “Okay, how far back?”

“Not far.” Dee winced as the gears let out a rough grinding sound under a hand still inexperienced and shaking from the fright she had unwittingly given him. The camper weaved drunkenly as he backed up until she told him to stop as a blue and white pickup came into view through the mist where it was parked off the road facing the direction they had come from.

Dee shared a concerned look with Nick and cranked the handle to lower the window.

“Hello!? Anyone there?”

A loud, feminine moan had her unfastening her seatbelt and opening her door to hop out before Nick could stop her.

“Dee—”

“I’m not an invalid, Nick. I’m perfectly capable of walking,” she huffed at his overprotectiveness.

“I know! Could you at least wait until I get this damn belt unfastened,” he griped as he struggled with it so he could catch up to her. Once he did, he offered her his elbow like he had seen done on TV and in the movies. Dee shot him a look but tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and leaned into him as they made their way across the uneven ground. He knew she didn’t like to be mollycoddled but, damn it, she _was_ pregnant! And, while he didn’t like to think about it the fact was, they were underage and essentially on the run from their abusive parents who they had stolen from, there was no healthcare available if anything went wrong.

“Hello? Do you need— Oh— Oh my gosh!” Nick felt the blood drain from his face as he looked up from studying the flat front tyre and was confronted by the sight of a woman sprawled across the front seats with her legs spread affording him an unfortunate view of childbirth he hadn’t been expecting to see for several months.

_Was that a head?! That couldn’t be the babies head!_

“Oh great! Another useless man!” Michelle rolled her eyes as the young man staggered back out of sight and landed with a thud against the side of her sister’s truck.

“Nick! Wonderful! You’ll have to excuse him. Erm, are you okay?”

“Honey, do I look okay?” Her eyes dropped from the look of wide-eyed fear and took in the protective cradle the girl's hands were forming across her own baby bump. “Sorry, labour makes me grumpy. You should have seen me giving birth to my Willa,” she chuckled wryly, wincing as it jostled her too much. “Actually, that’s probably why that bastard, Ward is being an asshole and didn’t pick up when I called.”

Dee jumped back as the woman’s body grew tense and she let out a strained cry and several inventive curse words that had Nick scuttling further away with his hands darting protectively towards his groin.

“Nick, can you fix the tyre?”

“Ground isn’t too good but—”

“No time—” Michelle grunted out between ragged puffs of breath.

“Okay, then we could take you to the nearest hospital, right?” She let out a startled cry as the pregnant woman suddenly sat upright and grabbed her by the shoulders. “No time! My daughter seems to be in a hellfire rush to be born.”

“Okay. Okay. Erm, do you think if we help, you can make it to our camper? It’ll be more comfortable.”

“We can try,” Michelle huffed. “If we don’t you better be good at catching, boy,” she warned as they helped gently, nervously, manoeuvre her out of the cramped confines of her truck.

“Captain of my basketball team all through high school, ma’am.”

“Wonderful. Just don’t try to slam-dunk my girl when she pops out. And for the love of God, quit it with the ma’am shit. You’re making me feel old!”

“Yes, ma’am. I mean no ma’am—”

“Men,” Michelle huffed as the boy tripped over his words. “You seem awfully young to be having a child.”

“We’re both eighteen.”

Michelle doubted that very much but she wasn’t one to judge. “I meant young in attitude, Nick was it?”

“Yes, Nick. And this is my wife, Denise.”

“Please, call me Dee. I prefer Dee.”

Wife? Michelle also doubted that very much but if they had a reason to hide she was in no position to do a thing about it right then. Maybe once her baby girl had stopped trying to rip her way out of her womb like she was trying to kick a door in.

“Do you know the sex of yours?”

“Erm, no.”

“Ward demanded to know. He wants a boy, an heir,” she rolled her eyes. “I just want them out of me,” she chuckled as she settled back upon the bed in the back of the camper. “Fortunately this one seems to be in an agreement about the getting out. You know how to coach me through the breathing and shit, right?”

“Ahh, we haven’t done any classes,” Dee admitted with a grimace. “If you give us directions to the hospital—”

“Honey, when I said there was no time, I meant it. As I seem to be the expert here. God help us all. You’re going to tell me what’s going on down there and you,” she gestured to Nick forcefully. “You are going to sit your ass down right here and give me your hand to mangle. Okay?”

“I— Okay,” he relented under her forceful gaze. “So we don’t need to boil water?”

“You can make me a drink later, son,” she huffed, grabbing his hand and squeezing as hard as she could. “If— if anything happens, her name is Wynonna. You got that? Wynonna Earp.”

**********

“Wynonna Earp.” Dee smiled as she looked at the baby suckling ravenously at Michelle’s breast. She had given little thought as to what childbirth would be actually like. Her knowledge thus far coming from books and what was apparently a very watered down version that was shown on screen. The reality was messy and painful in ways she had never imagined and left no room for modesty of any kind. But, the end result was definitely worth it and it made her long for the day when she could hold their baby in her arms.

From the moment the tiny baby had been placed in her arms, Michelle’s formerly gruff demeanour had softened into the perfect, if sweaty, picture of motherhood as she had cooed and kissed her baby.

“She’s beautiful.”

“Not to brag but, yes, she is.” Smiling softly, Michelle pressed another kiss to Wynonna’s still damp mop of hair. “I would ask you to just give me a lift home but, knowing Ward, that bastard will only turn up if the hospital call him there. God forbid the sheriff should be seen as anything less than perfect,” she snorted.

“Sheriff?” Dee’s eyes found Nick’s and saw the panic she was feeling reflected in them.

“Hey, listen. I don’t know what is going on with you two kids but, you’re obviously on the run from something. I’m not going to say anything though. Okay? You need to promise me something though, okay? For your baby. Find somewhere safe to be. Find a doctor to help you out. I started this morning off thinking it was just going to be just another day and you saw how that went down. I went out for flour and ended up with a baby. Even being prepared it can change in an instant but you do need a plan. Have you got somewhere to go?”

“Not really. We did hear of a place.” She left it at that, leaving out where it was and that it was something of a hippy commune that had been mentioned to them several states back on their journey but even that didn’t feel like it was far enough away from the reach of their parents.

“Just, get somewhere, okay.” Michelle wished she could offer them somewhere in there but Purgatory was a place best left to the crazy people that seemed determined to live there and call it home despite its literal demons.

Demons that her sorry excuse for a husband was supposed to kill thanks to a curse Wyatt Earp had managed to get placed on him. A curse that would pass to Willa when she turned twenty-seven if Ward didn’t manage to kill off the seventy-seven demons created of the people Wyatt had killed. That would have been incentive enough for Michelle to get busy if she was Ward but, instead of doing all he could to ensure Willa didn’t have to lift a finger, Ward, the useless piece of trash that he was, was sucking up to the revenants and training Willa to take over when the time came.

Michelle had begged him to let them leave but apparently, part of the curse meant that as long as there was a revenant left, the Earp heir would always be drawn back to the Ghost River Triangle to do their duty. He’d tried to leave when he had turned twenty-seven and the curse had become him and while he could leave for a short period of time, he had gotten dragged back over the line like a dog on a choke chain and the same would happen to Willa.

Kissing Wynonna’s head, Michelle closed her eyes and prayed that if nothing else, Wynonna would be spared the reach of the Earp curse.

**********

## 5th Jan 1990

Coming from Chicago, Nick thought he knew what winters were like but Canada was a fresh kind of hell once the season set in. Maybe it was the difference between being in a house and a camper but at the ripe age of sixteen, he felt like he had aged fifty years with how the cold seeped through the fabric of their home and took up residence in his bones.

They had made it out of Chicago with their lives to forge a new one. Travelling across America in a rickety camper van and up into Canada. The journey had been fraught with all the complications they’d never even dreamed of along with a whole heap more that came with Dee’s pregnancy. But, they had come to accept it all as normal but they had made it through. Their love grew only deeper and stronger despite the arguments and tears with every mile that passed beneath the wheels that took them away from their old life towards a new one.

But, this was the first time that he had been truly scared.

It was too soon!

They should have had another month to prepare for that day but Dee was in labour. She had been for over twelve hours and he felt scared and helpless even though they were surrounded by people telling them that everything would be okay.

How could it be okay?!

The commune of travellers they had joined was in the middle of nowhere, miles away from a hospital! Not that they could make it there as every single vehicle was frozen to the mud that had been there when they had pared up and then buried in a ton of snow that had looked pretty and miraculous on Christmas morning.

“For god’s sake Nick, sit down, you’re making me feel sick rockin’ the van.”

“I’m sorry.” Rushing back to her side, Nick rubbed circles upon Dee’s sweat-soaked back as she leaned over and sucked in ragged breaths. “I’m so sorry we came here. We shoulda stayed in Chicago or headed south. Shoulda gotten a motel or somethin’. Anything other than this.”

“Bit too late for shoulda’s Nick.” Dee huffed in frustration. “I need you here now. Not living in the past. Now!”

His assurance that he was, was cut off by another contraction that ripped a scream from her lungs. It was weaker than the others, barely enough to cover the knocking on the camper door as it took all the energy out of her and stopped her from cussing as the door opened and let all the heat out as James popped his head through the opening.

“Hey, we thought it might be best to get Dee out of the cold and got the cabin all set up ready. It’s not much but it’ll be a hell of a lot warmer.”

“Anywhere would be warmer now,” Dee grumbled under her breath. Everyone in the commune was friendly enough once you got past their natural reserve, but James and his wife, Simone, were the ones that had put them on to the place after they had left Chicago. Sometimes they felt a little too invested in their lives but they seemed to mean well… even if they apparently didn’t know how to wait to be invited in. Getting somewhere warmer sounded like a damn fine idea though.

The cabin when they reached it was much warmer. The heat from the roaring fire pricking pleasantly at her skin from the journey through the snow. It should have been uncomfortable going between the temperatures given the sweat still covering her body from hours of contractions but Dee felt revitalised by the heat, her body craving it.

The smoke that was filling the room however, that she could have done without as, far too late, she recognised the taste and scent of it. Before she could say anything though, the potent combination of heat and the strong strain of marijuana she sucked into her lungs started to work and she could do little more than flop back on the bed as another contraction took over her body.

Nick looked to be faring little better as his eyes grew glassy, his pupils widening under the effects of it. They had both tried a little of the pot to be sociable but Dee was too scared that it would affect their baby no matter what they said, and Nick didn’t react too well with it and had suffered through some strange hallucinations instead of its usual mellowing effect before it had cleared his system.

“No. No smoke!”

“It’s okay,” Simone assured her as she pressed Dee back amongst the pillows. “It’s just a light strain to help you through the contractions. Like the gas and air, they would give you at a hospital but natural. Just breathe it in and everything will be okay.” Turning her back on the bed, she nodded eagerly to James.

If the next couple of hours went well, they would finally be able to swear fealty to Bulshar and provide him with the perfect sacrifice.

“Even if it’s the one, the weather is too bad, Simone,” James hissed to his wife. “We can’t leave and the pieces are not in place to perform the sacrifice yet. We’re outside the triangle.”

“Then what?”

“Let them care for the baby for now and we’ll take it when the weather clears.”

Their words reached Dee as a sibilant, menacing hiss but their words sounded impossible coming from the mouths of their friends. Their faces were too distorted by something dark and awful as they turned and walked back towards the bed. And Simone’s hands were cold and cruel against her bare thighs as she forced them open to make a space ready to grab their child.

“Don’t touch me!”

“Hey, it’s okay, Dee. Just breathe, we’re here to help.”

“No. You want to take— Ahhh!” Dee’s head spun as the next wave of contractions bowed her spine sharply. They were getting stronger, closer together.

Simone bit her lip in frustration as she shared a look with James over the bed. If Dee didn’t couldn’t be convinced that she’d misheard what they’d been talking about, they would have to take drastic measures. “Breathe, Dee. Follow what I do. It’ll soon be time to push. Take her hand, Nick. Dee needs your strength right now.”

Nick quickly took a seat on the edge of the bed and willed his head to stop spinning. The bite of Dee’s nails as they dug into his hand and leg helped to keep him focussed but she could still see strange things dancing at the edge of his vision as Dee screamed and clawed her way through each contraction.

Through the ringing in his ears, he heard Simone and James urging her to push. Locking eyes with her, he tried to lend her his strength as she grunted and strained. He was scared and in awe at the same time, of the beautiful woman that he loved as he watched, feeling like little more than a bystander as she bore down.

From the corner of his eye he saw at the baby emerged and his heart stopped when he saw not what he had expected from when they had helped Michelle Earp give birth but instead a smooth almost formless thing that glimmered with pearlescent hues by the light of the fire and candles. Through the skin, he could just about make out movement of limbs but by a trick of the light and drugs dulling his senses, the skin seemed to be growing opaque as though it was hardening and forming a shell.

“Quickly!”

Nick willed his mind and body to move, to make sense of what he was witnessing as James suddenly drew a knife and hacked and cut away at… at whatever that was.

For a moment, just a moment, the image of leathery wings spread out in the flickering light from the fireplace and the candles. The wings cast a frightening shadow upon the cabin wall and then they were gone, pushed aside in Nick’s drug-addled mind by a soft cry that turned into a pitiful wail that was satiated and soothed once the tiny baby was placed upon Dee’s chest.

His ears buzzed and his vision blurred, words coming from a distance.

“…embryonic sack…”

“…it’s rare…”

“…perfectly fine…”

The cabin walls twisted and turned like the body of a snake as Nick edged closer for a better look. But, one glance at the baby, their baby, wrinkled and covered in fluids as it was, and everything came into crystal clear focus. Its tiny face was screwed up in a fierce look of consternation as it struggled to latch on to the nipple Dee offered it. It took a moment but finally, it all clicked and Dee let out a delighted laugh of relief as their baby latched on and started sucking strongly.

“It’s a girl, Nick. _She’s_ a girl. Our girl.”

“She’s beautiful. You’re both so beautiful.” Leaning down, Nick choked on the tears welling up inside him as he kissed the top of Dee’s head and felt his daughter’s perfect, tiny fist closed around his little finger. He stroked his fingers across the top of her head, marvelling at the shock of red hair and the softness of her skin.

He was in love. Utterly in love.

Once she’d had her fill and she was cleaned up and swaddled up tightly, Nick lay beside Dee on the bed and nervously cradled his daughter in his arms. Escaping the confines of the blankets, her tiny fists waved in the air and grabbed for his fingers as he stroked them gently across the unusual markings upon her face. He thought, and feared for a moment that the drugs he had inhaled were still working upon him and weaving an illusion in his mind that had him seeing the faintest of patterns of iridescent scales running from her hairline and just touching across her left cheek and down her neck before they vanished beneath the edge of the blanket.

He knew he wasn’t seeing things though.

No more than he was seeing that her left eye was not gazing up at him in the same baby blue hues of the right as it should have, but instead it was a warm brown with a ring of dark-red and amber around a pupil that had a vertical slit just like the eye of a cat.

“We need to keep her safe, Nick.”

“We will, Dee.” Smiling, Nick cradled her closer as he settled down to where she lay between the protective cradle of their bodies. “We will.” He kissed both of their foreheads and breathed a silent vow against their flesh, promising to protect them both with his last breath.

“Hmm, she smells like doughnuts.”

“I think that damn pot gave you the munchies,” Dee chuckled as she manoeuvred her aching body into a more comfortable position. “We need to get away from here, Nick.”

“We will. Just as soon as the weather lets up. Did you decide on the order for her name?”

“I did,” she smiled. They had decided on the names they liked several states back but even with Nick’s easy-going nature, they never been able to quite agree on which order was best with the names they’d liked for a girl. Dee knew more than ever what she wanted for their daughter though as she looked at the love writ upon his face as their baby attempted to drag his finger toward her mouth.

“Happy birthday, Nicole Rayleigh Haught.”

**********

## 8th Sept 1995

It was still hot for the time of year, more so in the Gibson greenhouse. But, Michelle wasn’t sure if the heat was due to the weather or from the contractions and blood loss. Walking through the motes of dust dancing upon the beams of sun pouring through the windows, she breathed slowly in and out. Her right hand left its position cradling her swollen abdomen and trembled as she touched the warm, stone hand of the angel statue that stood in the centre of the greenhouse and smearing blood and sweat across the pale surface.

It was beautiful. But, it wasn’t the angel she was waiting for.

“Where are you, Julian?” Michelle looked up at the blank face of the statue. “You promised me you would be here!” she shouted to the ceiling and beyond. “You promised!”

She slipped to the floor, her back resting against the base of the statue as a stronger contraction pulsed through her.

Once again, Ward would not be there to help her. But, this time it was because he flat out refused to be there for the birth of a child that wasn’t his own rather than neglect on his part. No doubt, he would be at the same place though, propping up the bar at Shorty’s and drinking his weight in beer and whiskey.

He was a mean drunk that liked to communicate with his fists with any amount of alcohol in him and Michelle was glad that her sister, Gus, was taking care of Willa and Wynonna. If she bled to death in the greenhouse, Ward might leave them with Gus and Curtis where they would be safe from his wrath?

No, Ward would never let Willa out of his sight. Not the heir he was training until there was nothing of the child she should be left.

She hated to think it, but Willa could be as mean spirited as Ward. She picked up on his actions and mimicked him as easily as she picked up a gun. Willa knew that Ward hated the baby within her but she didn’t know why so she hated blindly, griping and complaining loudly about her getting the pretty name when Wynonna had vetoed her idea of naming her Welcome and suggested Waverly instead.

“Waverly. My angel.” Michelle rubbed her hands over her abdomen and grimaced as Waverly kicked back strongly. “Darn kids are always in a rush to get out,” she chuckled. “You should have seen what Wynonna put me through… well me and a couple of friends… Nick and Dee,” she mused half to herself. “Nice kids. I hope they made it okay? Their kid should be four now if they did. Just a little younger than your sister, Wynonna.”

Michelle kept talking through the pain, trying to distract herself and maybe even Waverly but Waverly was in a rush whether she was ready or not. Talking became screams and pleas for mercy and for Julian. All of which went unanswered as she collapsed broken and bleeding upon the dusty floor of the greenhouse within the shade of the angel statue.

A soft cry had Michelle stepping back from the edge of the abyss loss of blood was dragging her toward to care for her daughter.

“He should be here. He should be here. He should be here. Where’s Julian? He needs to protect her!”

Joy leapt through her as a shadow fell across them only to die when she saw that the figure standing, watching them wasn’t her angel lover but a demon.

“If you hurt her, I’ll… I swear… Please. Please… save my baby.” Her vision started to fade. “Save… Waverly,” Michelle’s body petered out as he body slumped to the side, her world tilting and swirling between the stony face of the angel and that of the demon reaching for her baby.

“Waverly…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NB - The title, Zaldrize comes, according to Google, from the High Valyrian (Game of Thrones) word for dragon. What can I say :p Sometimes I just like to pick foreign words for normal things to make them sound extra special, like Séquoia in Lone Wolf is French for redwood. I went through a few translations for dragon in translate though and most of them seemed to be dragon or something that looked similar (dragonne (French), dragan (Irish), drago (Italian), Drakon (phonetic version of Russian)) -_- so, where had we seen dragons? GOT.


	3. Chapter 3

## 1996

Clutching the hood of her hoodie between trembling fingers, Nicole pulled the soft material closer around her face, creating a cocoon of fabric around her that smelled of home. Her eyes flitted around the small tent her aunt Simone and uncle James had insisted she stayed put it.

Beyond the thin fabric of the small tent, she could hear the strange, confusing sounds of voices mingled with the beating of drums. They’d told her that her mom and dad had said she could go with them to a music festival, whatever that was, but to her, it sounded more like the chanting she heard from the old church on a Sunday morning when she rode by on her bike. The older kids that hung around outside, leaning against the wall of the church with an air of coolness and a cloud of smoke lingering around their heads had called it worship in that bored and cool way teenagers did before telling her to ‘git lost’.

Nicole knew that her parents sometimes went to the church but they never went on a Sunday and when they came back they were always acting strange and smelled of a different kind of smoke than the harsh stuff the teenagers surrounded themselves in. She hated it when they got back from worship. They were never mean but they were distant and disinterested in everything around them.

They had been like that when aunt Simone and uncle James had knocked on the door and asked about the music festival. When he had seen them, uncle James had told her to wait out in his car even though she had said she shouldn’t go when they were like that. She knew better than to leave them. They’d told her never to go far from home no matter what. But uncle James had been insistent and her aunt had led her outside with a grip on her arm that had brought tears to her eyes and left bruises in her flesh.

Nicole rubbed her upper arm through the thin padding of her jacket. Her fingers easily found the small bruises left there and the hurt just made her want her mom and dad all the more. Sniffing, she swiped at her eyes and nose. She wanted to feel the comfort of their hugs and have them chase away the strange shadows that lay outside the tent.

Inching across the tent, Nicole peered through the small, crinkly plastic window there but her view was blocked by the figure of someone standing right outside. She wasn’t sure if it was the same man that had looked at her with a leering smile on his face the last time she had dared to open the tent and told her to get back inside, that it ‘would be her time soon enough’, but Nicole didn’t dare check.

_“When do you think he will get here?”_

_“Soon enough. Then with our sacrifice, we can finally swear fealty.”_

_“Are you sure it will be enough?”_

_“She is the last of her kind. With her out of the way, nothing can stop him.”_

Nicole had no idea what fealty was or what the whispered voices were talking about but it made her heart pound and her breathing grow ragged as fear welled up inside her. Her body grew hotter and hotter. Hotter than the tears that flowed down her cheeks as the security and warmth of her hoodie suddenly feeling as stifling as the small tent. Beneath her hands, the thin groundsheet bubbled and melted as the need to escape from that place and return home grew and grew.

She needed her mom and dad before it was too late and she did something bad again like the time she made the slide in the playground get too hot and burned the butt of the mean kid that wouldn’t let her play! It had been an accident but she wasn’t allowed to have accidents like that.

Moving to the back of the too-small tent, Nicole scrambled to find a way out and for once, whatever it was that happened to her helped as her still hot hands created an opening she managed to slip through and, not wanting to be there when her aunt and uncle saw what she had done, Nicole took it and slipped away into the trees.

**********

“Wynonna! What did I just say not to do?”

Wynonna’s thin shoulders came up out of instinct at her mama’s raised voice and she ducked her head down into the cover of them so far that her woollen hat nearly flew off her head. “Not to wander off?”

“Exactly.” Michelle hugged her young daughter against her side and pressed a kiss to her temple as she settled down on the sturdy log beside her.

“Mama, why do we have to be out here?” Wynonna sighed deeply as she stared into the flickering flames that were the only form of entertainment out there.

“Training, hon.”

“Training for what? Pa will take care of all the Revenants and break the curse in no time! You’ll see, mama!” Pointing her fingers, Wynonna aimed them around and pretended to shoot how she had seen him teach Willa.

Michelle tried to will her body not to react adversely to Wynonna’s obvious glee. Her daughter was too young to take in what she was doing. Too young to understand what the Earp curse meant. Too young to know what her pa was doing, or rather not doing, to end it. Too young to know what he was turning Willa into with his ‘training’. Too young to know what an absolute _dick_ of a parent and a husband he was.

As far as Wynonna was concerned, Ward was a hero and she was all too willing to believe it when she was told that her mama was clumsy and ran into things and fell downstairs a lot. And Michelle was only too willing to take his licks as long as he didn’t turn his fists or belt upon the girls. Better for her to take it than for them to find out first hand that Ward Earp was as mean as a rattlesnake when he was drunk. And since Waverly had been born, he was drunk an awful lot.

“Go put your PJ’s on, kiddo. Time for us to head to bed and leave the forest for the bears and wolves for the night.”

“Wolves? Is that what’s makin’ all the noise?”

Michelle chuckled as Wynonna’s blue eyes grew as wide as saucers beneath her oversized knitted beanie as she scanned the darkness around their campfire. “That’s just other people banging away downriver from us, sweetpea. What the rule, Wynonna?” she prompted.

Wynonna sighed deeply at the reminder. “Rule number one: Don’t panic. Rule number two: Assess the situation calmly. Rule number three: Take inventory. Rule number—”

“The rule above all others, Wynonna,” Michelle chuckled. “Don’t wander off. Now, go on, get ready for bed and you can have extra marshmallows on your hot chocolate while I read you a story.”

“Extra-extra?”

“Now, that all depends on how quick you are.”

As the tent flap closed behind Wynonna, Michelle carefully unwrapped the scarf from around her neck and fingered the bruises it had hidden from her daughter's eyes.

The training Michelle was giving Wynonna right then was not on breaking the Earp curse but on how to avoid the curse that was Ward Earp.

He had been as drunk as a skunk and twice as mean by mid-morning after beating up on Bill Lippencott for the crime of bumping into him in Shorty’s. And with Willa sleeping over at the Gardner’s for the weekend, and Waverly spending some quality time with Gus and Curtis, the pool of targets was too small for Michelle to risk so she had waited until he was passed out and packed up Wynonna and the car for an impromptu training session out in the Pine Barrens, in an area known as the Shelterlands.

They would be safe from him there. Word around Purgatory was that some travellers, hippies or yuppie weirdos depending on who was talking, had been seen heading to Shelterlands for either a music festival, drug party, orgy, or some other cult happenings. Again, that depended on who was telling the tale. Either way, they would be safe from Ward there as, god forbid, he might have to do some actual police work if he did.

**********

Nicole made her way away from the light from the bonfire and the sounds of drumming and ‘worship’ and slipped deeper into the darkness between the trees until she came upon the banks of a river. Trudging through the shale that sloped down our of sight, she crouched down at the edge of the river and gazed out across it. The water was still, barely a ripple to disturb the inky blackness cast upon it by the night. Most importantly it was blessedly cool against her flesh as she dipped her hands into it and buried her fingers in the loose shale.

A calmness settled over her like a blanket as the sounds from the camp became nothing more a background hum…

Until a shout came up from behind her. Her name being called over and over with so much hatred dripping from it that Nicole hunched down further out of sight and curled up into a ball rather than show herself.

And then there was a silence… one so sudden that Nicole tried to pop her ears before she realised it was not that and dared to move just enough to take a glance over the edge of where she was hiding.

There was a man standing tall in the clearing while everyone else was bowed down before him so low that some of them were nearly lying upon the ground. Their bodies were cast in shadow from the flames from the bonfire but she could see the military-style beret sitting on the head of the bulky looking figure.

Uncle James and aunt Simone crawled towards him, their faces and hands lifted as they said something too quietly for Nicole to hear. Whatever they said, it didn’t impress him as he lifted a hand in a sharp gesture that cut off their words and had them cowering back.

“You called me here to swear fealty to my Lord but have nothing to give.”

“It was here!”

“And yet, it’s not. Even if it were, it is too soon. Unless you planned to trap him forever?”

“No! No! I swear, we thought we had the prophecy right! Please, tell us what we need to do and we will do it?”

“Do? The time is right for a sacrifice in his name. You _will_ give him a sacrifice.”

“Any—”

Nicole bit down on her fist, unable to look away at her uncle’s voice was cut off by a scream. It blended in with all the screams of the others around the camp as the man seemed to split apart into something that resembled a tornado of black shards of metal that scythed through everyone there in pulsing waves. It was unbelievably fast, but also torturously slow as the cuts whittled them down in a way that drew out their agony.

Hands suddenly grabbed her from behind, yanking her back from where she was frozen and spinning her around to meet the brilliant blue eyes of a girl around her age.

“Come on!”

Nicole followed the tug and pull of the hand that had hers in a vicelike grip that threatened to yank her off her feet.

“You’re going to fast.”

“You’re going too slow. Move it, red.”

Nicole would have corrected her on her name but a thin branch slapped her in the face as the blue-eyed girl released it once she was clear and Nicole wasn’t entirely sure it was accidental.

“Where are we going?”

“Away from whatever that was. Me and my mama are camping near here, she’ll know what to do. Hold on, which way is the river flowing? Fudge! I think we’re headin’ in the wrong direction!”

“Are you crazy! We can’t go back!” Nicole yanked the other girl back as she tried to go back the way they had just come from. Nicole hadn’t had much experience with camping, though she swore she would learn. And she certainly had no experience with nothing like what she had seen but even she knew that heading back towards where people were getting cut to pieces by a tornado of metal was probably not a good idea.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Probably?”

Wynonna ignored her and looked around for inspiration. She _had_ to get back to her mama somehow but she couldn’t do it with carrot top complaining the whole way. “Look!” Tugging, she pulled the girl further down the river to where there was a canoe resting half on the shore. “This will do. Help me turn it over!”

Nicole heaved and pushed, flipping the old canoe over. “There are no oars.”

“You don’t need one. Get in and stay out of sight while I go get help.”

“Alone?”

“I know the way around the woods—”

“You were just heading in the wrong direction,” Nicole pointed out.

“But now I know the right direction,” Wynonna countered with a grin as she pushed the other girl into the canoe. “Just stay out of sight,” she urged, shoving on her shoulders. As the girl reluctantly relented, Wynonna found herself suddenly struck by the difference in her eyes as the moon peeked from behind the clouds and caught them and the iridescent shimmer down the edge of her cheek in its light. “I— I won’t be gone long.”

Turning, she tripped over the end of the canoe in her haste before righting herself and racing off into the night. Whatever the girl was, the only thing that mattered was getting back to mama and getting help.

**********

“Wynonna!”

Even though she had only looked minutes before, Michelle threw aside everything within the tent in an effort to find her daughter but the two sleeping bags remained just as empty as when she had left them after waking to find her daughter gone and an ominous orange glow lighting the sky downriver.

Scrambling back outside, she screamed her daughter’s name into the night.

“Wynonna!”

“Mama!”

“Wynonna! Oh my god!” Falling to her knees, Michelle sobbed as she caught Wynonna in her arms and held her just as tight as she could. “Where did you go? I told you not to leave the camp! That doesn’t matter though. You’re safe.”

“Mama, there’s—”

“Later, hon. We need to get out of here.”

“But, mama—”

“Now, Wynonna! We can’t risk getting cut off from the road!”

“Mama!!!!”

Michelle turned as the urgency in her daughter’s scream finally registered. Kneeling down, she took a steadying breath and gently held Wynonna’s hands. “What wrong, dear?”

“I know I did what I shouldn’t but I just wanted to see. And… there was a bad man, mama. I think he killed everyone there but I saved a girl. I tried to bring her back here but I went the wrong way,” she admitted with a blush.

“Where is she, hon?”

“She was scared and not as quiet as I am in the woods. We found a canoe on the shore and I got her to hide in that until I got you. We need to go get her, mama!”

“The canoe, was it just around a bend in the river?”

“Yeah!”

“Okay, I think I know where it is. There’s a road that loops around to a cabin there Shorty and Curtis use it to fish from.” Though she had the feeling that very little fishing went on given that they never came home with anything other than empty bottles and cans. “You did good helping her, Wynonna. Now, go get what you need from the tent and get in the truck.”

“Yes, mama!”

Every second Wynonna waited was an agony that was punctuated by the restless tapping of her foot as her knees jittered up and down but finally her mama was starting the engine and the truck was bouncing along the rutted road. As her mama drove, Wynonna told her all about what she had seen and how the girl was different to distract herself from the way the headlights bounced wildly off the trees and bushes that loomed out of the darkness as though they were running from the fire that glowed through the trees.

“Hang on!”

Wynonna covered her face and eyes, her body shooting stiff as a board as her mama suddenly slammed her foot down on the accelerator and the truck burst through the flames that had crossed over the dirt track.

Fire engines and police cruisers screamed past them all heading towards the fire. One of the cruisers peeled away and Wynonna saw its lights following them as mama swung the truck down another track that led back towards the river.

The cruiser pulled up beside them as mama bounced the truck to a halt but before she could be stopped, Wynonna leapt from the truck and raced off towards the shore.

“Wynonna! Wait up!”

“Michelle Gibson! What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Oh, just out taking a drive, Deputy Nedley.”

“You need to get out of here, there’s a fire—”

“No! Really? I hadn’t noticed,” she snarked back. “Wynonna!”

Randy ran a hand over his face in exasperation. For a moment he wondered if he would get in too much trouble with Sheriff Earp if he cuffed his wife and daughter and hauled them back to the station? Knowing Ward, he would still be too drunk to notice they were even missing. But, then he took the time to look at them. To really look at them, and saw that they seemed to be searching for something.

“She was right here, mama! I swear.”

Or someone, he realised.

“What’s going on?”

“The canoe was right here!” Wynonna cried out in impotent frustration.

“Are you sure, Wynonna?” Michelle looked around at the all too obviously empty shoreline. “Maybe it was further up or downriver?”

“A canoe?” Randy crouched down at Wynonna’s level. “An old wooden thing, turned over?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Michelle, that is usually right here.” He pointed to the shore where he was used to seeing it. “Always having to come down after Curtis and Shorty get done fishing to secure it so it doesn’t slip back into the… Oh. There was someone in the canoe?”

“A girl. Wynonna rescued her from where that fire is and got her to hide here while she got me.”

“Hide from what, Wynonna?”

“There was a man. He was hurting all of them.”

“Okay. Michelle, you need to get yourself and Wynonna home where it’s safe. I’ll look for the girl, okay?”

“But—”

“Michelle, I know you’ve probably got more experience in your pinkie than most of the guys out here but you’ve got Wynonna to think about. Let us do our job.”

Michelle nodded and gestured for an obviously upset Wynonna to get back in the truck before she grabbed Randy by the arm and pulled him aside.

“Listen, from what Wynonna said about the camp and the girl, it reeks of the usual spooky shit going on.”

“Just a typical night in the Ghost River Triangle then? Kind of figured that when we found out about the fire from a tipoff from someone that sounded like they’d swallowed a badge they weren’t allowed to flash.”

“Feds?”

“Something like that. But keep it to yourself until we hear what the ‘official’ story on the fire is going to be.”

Michelle nodded curtly and stomped back to the truck. She was all too used to Purgatory and its lies but that didn’t mean she had to like it though. Just about every damn fool there that had their history linked back through the years knew that demons were real but they never talked about it and anyone that did was called a liar or worse. As an adult, it was difficult to navigate. As a parent trying to convince their children that lying was bad while telling them they had to lie, it was all but impossible.

“Mama?”

“Deputy Nedley is going to find her, hon.”

“But—”

“There are no buts with this, Wynonna. You can trust the deputy. He’s a good man. I’ve got to ask you to trust me and do something else for me when we get home. Can you do that for me?”

“I always trust you, mama.”

“I need you to not say anything about what happened here tonight.”

“Mama?”

“We weren’t here at all. You didn’t see anything. Not a fire. Not a girl. Nothing. You can’t say anything. Not even to your pa. I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t really important.”

“But—”

“Wynonna! Please! Just— just trust me on this and do as I say. Please.”

Wynonna swiped at the tears streaming down her cheeks. “Okay,” she whispered in a small voice.

**********

Randy didn’t even wait for the lights from Michelle’s truck to vanish out of sight before he grabbed a torch out of his cruiser and started jogging down the shore. Within minutes he was regretting every doughnut and every single Chinese takeaway he had scarfed down in his life as his feet sank into the shale and his heart started to pound.

White lights were sparking across his vision but the sight of a canoe slowly floating downriver had him finding reserves of speed, strength and a stubborn will to go on that had him pushing past every pain barrier until he got far enough ahead to throw himself into the river.

He waded out, his wet fingers sliding desperately across the worn wood before finally snagging on a piece of rope. There was a moment when he felt sure he was going to lose his grip or get yanked after the canoe but his footing held firm and with a groan as the old rope pulled tight, the canoe came to a halt on the end of it.

Slowly, carefully, Randy pulled it back towards him until he was able to finally hold onto the canoe itself and look inside.

Wide brown eyes stared back at him from a face that was pale and delicate even if her jaw jutted determinedly. He smiled as gently as he could while blowing like a draft horse after a gallop. “I’m here to help,” he puffed out.

“Sir. You look like you need help.”

“You could be right there,” he snorted out a rueful laugh. “How about I tow you back to shore first?”

“Okay.”

He gently tousled her mop of red hair. “Hold on tight now. Where are my manners? I’m Deputy Nedley, what’s your name?”

“Nicole, Nicole Haught.”

“Two Nicole’s huh? That’s mighty fancy.”

“No!” Nicole giggled. “Just one.”

“You were at the camp?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, you’re safe now, Nicole,” Randy gently assured her as she glanced fearfully towards the fire. “Were— were you with anyone?”

“My aunt and uncle. I— I think the bad man killed them.”

He patted her knee awkwardly. “Your parents not with you?”

“No, sir. They’re at home.”

“Well, now. That’s good,” he huffed as he pulled the canoe up onto the shore. “Soon as we get in touch with them, we can get you back home.” Holding out a hand, he encouraged her to step out of the canoe. “You up for a little bit of a walk, Nicole?”

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

“I’m sure. Oh, sir, there was a girl that helped me, is she—?”

“She’s how I knew where to look, Nicole. She got back to her mama and they let me know.”

“I’m glad she’s okay… even if she did hit me in the face with a branch.”

“Yep, that sounds pretty par for the course with that one,” he laughed. “Come on, let’s see about getting you home,” he gently steered her forward, one hand resting between her shoulder blades and the other resting upon his weapon as he kept an eye on the woods and the girl at his side.

She was quiet and serious. Who wouldn’t be after what she must have seen that night? But there was a strength within her, a determination that went beyond the fierce jut of her chin he’d first seen. She was cautious about meeting his eyes though but he would have figured out why even without Michelle’s warning that she was different. But, he lived in an area overrun with demons, witches, werewolves, and the occasional vampire. His boss was the heir to a curse, and still the worst thing about Purgatory was the normal, everyday, human population and trying to secure decent education for his daughter and she’d only just turned a year old!

“If we meet anyone, Nicole could you do me a favour? Just let me do the talking, okay?”

“Why?”

“There might be some people around that have got something to do with that fire and we don’t want people like that finding out you were there and might be able to identify anyone.”

“They would try to hurt us or take me?”

“They might try. I’m not going to let anything happen to you though. Just stick close to me, okay. I’m going to get you home safely.”

**********

Despite his assurances to Nicole, Randy was on edge every step of the way back to his cruiser and the feeling didn’t abate until he’d pulled up outside his home and his wife, Emily, turned on the lights and opened the door.

She eyed him and Nicole cautiously but, surprisingly, she held her tongue as he led Nicole inside. Mostly…

“You look like a half-drowned rat,” she tutted as he left puddles on her clean floor with every step. Leaning in, she kissed him on his stubbly cheek and whispered in his ear. “Bringing home wraiths and strays now, Randy?”

“Just until I can get in touch with her parents and get her home. Isn’t that right, Nicole?”

“Yes, sir.”

He pulled his wife aside and quietly filled her in on what had happened out in the woods. “Could you keep an eye on her while I call them?”

“Of course. And get yourself changed too! I’m not having you leaving puddles all over my nice clean house, Randy Nedley! And don’t wake Chrissy up either!” Emily yelled after him as he rushed up the stairs. “Nicole is it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Come on through to the living room where it’s warm.”

**********

Mindful of his wife’s wishes, and also slightly scared of her reaction if he stained her floor, Randy quickly changed out of his wet clothes and placed them in the tub where they could do no further damage. He could hear the soft murmur of her voice floating up the stairs as she talked to Nicole as he spread all the details Nicole had given him out across the small desk that had once held pride of place in his home office. That was until the room was needed for the unexpected arrival of his daughter after they had all but given up hope of having a child.

Closing the door just in case his voice carried, he dialled the number Nicole had given him and listened to it ring. And ring. And ring. He tried again and again, all but giving up hope until it finally connected. He opened his mouth to speak and then deflated when he realised that it had gone to voicemail.

“God damn infernal… Hello. This is Deputy Randy Nedley I’m sorry to disturb you at such a late hour but could you call me back as soon as possible? Thank you. Erm, okay… Goodbye.”

Putting down the phone he groaned loudly and let his head thud against the top of his desk. He hated having to leave a call like that. It probably went against god knows how many regulations that had been drilled into him but with Nicole potentially been in danger he didn’t want to inform the local LEO’s as to what was happening just in case.

The sudden ringing of the phone so close to his head had Randy rearing back in his chair and eying it warily before reaching out and picking it up delicately as though afraid it was about to go off like a grenade in his hand.

“Hello?”

_“Is that Deputy Nedley, Randy Nedley?_

“Speaking.”

_“This is Detective Hamilton. You just called the Haught residence. May I ask why?”_

Randy frowned at the phone. “There was a fire at a local festival and I’m afraid there have been some casualties including relatives of theirs. May I ask why a Detective is answering the Haught’s phone?”

_“Purgatory, right? Well, shit!”_

Hamilton’s breath sounded loudly in Randy’s ear as the other man let out a rough sigh.

_“The Haught’s are both dead, gunshots to the head. Last reports from the neighbours have the daughter being driven away by a couple that the kid calls them aunt and uncle. We haven’t been able to find anything on them. The reports on the news say there are no survivors?”_

_“Detective Hamilton!”_

_“I am on the phone Agent Brice! Damn Feds.”_

“No. No survivors. Everywhere is still ablaze and the chance of finding any remains is slim but we managed to recover some identification from outside the fire zone. Feds butting in on your case, huh?”

_“Yeah, they turned up not long after we did. Some weird branch of the Marshal’s I’ve never heard of before. I mean, good thing they seem to be eager to help but they’re a little too eager and keep butting in. The fools aren’t even at the right place. They’re looking for a Daniels family. Don’t suppose you found their ID’s up there?”_

“Nope, no Daniels. I’m sure they’ll be more welcome to come up here and help clean up some bodies if they want to sift through everything once of Sheriff finds out.”

_“I’m sure they’ll love that,” _he laughed._ “Anyway, I’d better get back to cleaning this all up. I’m sure they won’t want anything to do with the paperwork.”_

“Yeah. I’m sorry your case ended how it did.”

_“Me too. Thank you for calling so promptly, Deputy.”_

Randy stared at the phone in his hand, the buzzing of the disconnected call was drowned out by the buzzing in his head as his thoughts faced around and around. He wasn’t sure what he should do but he knew he had to protect Nicole.

“Randy? What’s wrong?”

Blinking, he looked down into his wife’s urgent gaze as she knelt down by his chair.

“Where’s Nicole?”

“Poor thing went out like a light on the couch. What’s wrong, Randy? Talk to me.”

He told her everything, leaving nothing out until his words ran dry and silence hung around them. He half expected her to demand they hand Nicole over. Really, it was the sensible, lawful, thing to do.

“You think she’s in danger?”

“You’ve seen the markings on her face? The difference in her eyes. I don’t know what she is—”

“An innocent child just like our Chrissy is what she is and no one can tell me otherwise. We’ll take her in.”

“Emily, people will know if we just magic a kid out of nowhere.”

“When they ignore some of the crazy stuff that goes on around them? Anyway, I’m not from Purgatory, if anyone asks she’s the daughter of a cousin of mine. We’ll tell them she’s staying for a while. Better schools or something. We’ll work it out!”

Randy’s whole body felt weighed down by lead as he made his way back downstairs while Emily made plans and gathered together some spare bedding. He stood in the living room doorway, his hands twisting together as he tried to work out how to tell a child that their parents were dead.

She sat up on the couch, her body hunching in on itself as she looked at him sadly.

“I’m not going home, am I?”

“I— No. I’m afraid you can’t. But, you’ve got a home right here with us for just as long as you need it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole and Waverly's first meeting.
> 
> Where Nedley is a good dad.  
Michelle needs rescuing.  
Chrissy is an adorable toddling sister/wing woman.  
Nicole is a sweetheart as always... and just a little bit of a showoff around a pretty face.  
Waverly has a thing for redheads and wraps Nicole around her little finger.

## 1998

“Feet off the dash, Nicole.” Randy gave his adopted daughter a fond look as he patted her knee in gentle reprimand.

“Sorry, sir,” Nicole mumbled as she let her worn sneaker covered feet drop to the carpeted footwell with an audible thud.

Randy hid a smile at Nicole’s demeanour as she slouched her lanky frame down further in the seat with a heartfelt sigh until the top of her PSD ballcap was barely showing above the edge of the window and crossed her arms with a huff. Even when Nicole was being petulant as she was right then, she was always respectful enough not to shout or whine unless asked what was wrong and she had been so careful not to scuff up his dash too.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What’s got you all in a mood, kid?”

“Why can’t I go to school like everyone else?”

Even though he steeled his heart to her imploring look, Randy’s heart lurched just at the glance at that he risked. “Nicole—” he sighed and pulled the car over down a quiet street where he could talk to his daughter safely and uninterrupted.

“I’ll be careful,” Nicole promised urgently in an attempt to negate the usual reasons why she couldn’t do something. “I swear. I’m getting much better at controlling myself.”

“Nicole, sweetie. There was steam coming out of your ears just a minute ago.”

“What? No… I didn’t mean to.”

“You weren’t,” he quickly assured her before she could twist her fingers into knots in her lap. “But, just the fact that you didn’t _know_ that you hadn’t and I was making that up says you’re not ready. It is too risky, Nicole and I know you know that too. Just one slip—” his throat closed off, choking off the words at the thought. “We can’t lose you, honey. You mean too goddamn much to me to risk anything.”

“Okay.” Nicole swiped at her tear-filled eyes with her sleeve and fell silent as he gave her shoulder a long squeeze that spoke volumes of his love and started the car moving again. Lifting her head, she glanced up at her dad from beneath the brim of her cap. “Ya know… you owe the swear jar a dollar once mom finds out you just cussed then?” she grinned a devilish warning of intent to tattle.

“Hmm, how about I buy you an ice cream _not_ to tell your ma?”

Randy grinned as Nicole bounced upright in her seat at the lure of the frozen treat.

“Chrissy too?” Nicole asked, her mismatched eyes shining hopefully.

“Yep,” reaching out, Randy planted his hand on her head and ruffled her red hair, cap and all, before giving the peak a teasing flick as she giggled, fussed and whined out a ‘daddddd’ as she straightened her cap until it sat just right on her head again. “We’ll pick your sister up from daycare first and then head on over for an ice cream before we head home. What flavour do you want?”

“Vanilla?”

“Vanilla? Nothing fancier?”

“Some rainbow sprinkles on it? Oh, can we go to the park to eat it too?”

“Hmm,” he narrowed his eyes at her thoughtfully. “As long as you don’t go on any of those wild rides and make yourself sick… I saw enough of that from the drunks hurling all over the cells last night. Shorty and his damn fool idea of double shot happy hours.”

“You arrested people? Who? What for? Are they still there? Did you throw the book at them when you threw them in the slammer?”

“Calm down there, kid.” Randy chuckled wryly as Nicole bounced up and down in the seat.

She was always more excited about his job than he was even when it kept him away from family time. Always hanging onto every detail no matter how gross or boring. And at the ripe old age of eight, she’d already made it clear to anyone that asked, and some that didn’t, that she wanted to work with him and serve and protect.

That was a desire that would no doubt change when she became and teen and everything he did suddenly became ‘uncool’. Until that day arrived, he was going to hold onto her excitement for his job to help him get through it. Through all the bullshit that went with having a mean drunk for a Sheriff. And, a town overrun with _actual_ demons, and god only knew what else. All of which everyone chose to ignore in favour of their simple life in a small town with the shittiest of shitty hockey teams and their view of the Rockies.

Luckily, before he could get too riled up about the town his family had lived in for generations, the small daycare that Chrissy attended came into view. It wasn’t an easy place to miss even if you tried with how it was festooned with brightly painted, cartoon characters that just skirted around copyright laws by the skin of their teeth and by virtue of Disney being too far away to care, even though most of the kiddies they looked after were too young to appreciate their efforts.

Nicole’s brown eyes lit up at the sight of it as always though, a soft sigh leaving her at the thought of what she was missing out on even though the place was well beneath her age. Randy wondered if she would be so darn eager to attend school if she knew that the one person she wanted to see, Wynonna, spent most of her school days trying to escape the building?

And speaking of Earps, but thankfully the youngest, sweetest one of the bunch, he saw Waverly playing with Chrissy in the small sandpit in the equally small yard that doubled as a playground under the watchful gaze of their carer, Daisy Franks.

“Good evening, Daisy.” Randy gave her a respectful nod of his head, hiding the smirk he was sure was on his face as she made a teeth-sucking sound and grumbled at him for being too familiar with her name.

“Only the little ones get to call me Daisy and well you know it, Randal.” She reprimanded him with a glower that he totally ignored as he opened his arms to catch his daughter as she rushed towards him with a squeal of excitement and swing her into the air.

“Have you been a good girl today?”

“Mhm!”

Randy chuckled as Chrissy nodded enthusiastically and turned her attention to Nicole with another, equally loud, squeal of joy and a grasping of hands as she demanded to be let down so she could rush her too. “Nuh-uh, you go on back and say bye to Waverly first.” He nodded to where Waverly was shyly looking at Nicole while her fingers twisted a strand of her hair almost into a bow.

“Randy, could I have a word… please?”

He put Chrissy down and gave her a little nudge before he moved over to where Daisy was gesturing to him dramatically. It was not like the woman to be polite when it came to dealing with adults and it showed with how she was desperately she was having to clench her teeth together when he spoke. “What’s wrong, Daze?”

Pursing her lips at him, Daisy urged the infuriating man to follow her further out of range of the children’s ears. “Its Waverly. Well, Michelle.” She didn’t need to add anything further as she saw a look of understanding on his face. It was obvious to everyone in Purgatory that Michelle was a victim of abuse and not simply clumsy as she said but no one did a thing about it and never would while her husband was a hero by virtue of his name alone. “She could barely stand when she brought Waverly this morning and it’s already well past the appointed picking up time. I could call Ward but…”

But that would mean more trouble for Michelle if he was pulled away from Shorty’s, everyone knew that.

“I’ll take her home and check on Michelle while I’m out there.” It was the best option as Ward was a typical bully and unlikely to take his anger out on someone that could, and would, fight back.

He crouched down in front of the little girl, keeping his smile friendly as she gazed at him with wide hazel eyes. “Do you remember me, Waverly, I work with your pa?”

“’’ficer Nedley… Hissy’s dad?”

“That’s right, angel. Your mama seems to be running late. Would it be okay with you if I take you home so old Daisy here can get going?” He shared a wink with Waverly as Daisy let out a snort at the description and grumbled about only having a couple of grey hairs ‘thank you very much’.

“Nicole, honey, could you help load Chrissy and Waverly into the back seat.”

“Yes, sir.”

He chuckled as Chrissy towed Waverly over to Nicole by her hand and urged her friend to take Nicole’s other hand. The pair looked at each other thoughtfully for a moment and then Nicole reached out with a hand and a smile and Waverly slipped her hand into Nicole’s and gazed up at her as though the sun was shining out of the red strands of hair that had escaped her cap.

“Thanks for taking her, Randy. Ward didn’t act too kindly the last time I had to take her home.” In fact, she was pretty sure the way he had burst out of the house wearing nothing but his underwear and waving that ridiculous gun of his in one hand and a nearly empty bottle of whiskey in the other was why her hair had grey in it.

“Not a problem. Daze. I’ll see you tomorrow. Same time as usual.” He gave her a courteous nod and turned back to his cruiser as she waved to the girls and called out that she would call Michelle and let her know not to worry about Waverly. “Nicole, ride in back with them and make sure they behave,” he stopped her before she could close the door on them.

“But, dadddddd.”

“I want to hear no buts other than yours hitting the back seat,” he warned gently but firmly.

“Yes, sir.”

He ruffled her cap in passing again, earning a half-hearted whine of protest as she climbed into the back and, with a bit of deft wiggling from Waverly and Chrissy, found herself sitting between the two toddlers. She looked startled, her eyes big and wide as she looked at them both and shot him a pleading look through the mirror that he ignored.

Before they even made it into what passed for the main road that ran through Purgatory, Nicole had settled into her task and was carefully listening as Chrissy explained some kind of game or something she had done in day-care while Waverly added her take on everything in her usual, delicate voice when prompted. Her eyes were big and wide as she shyly looked at Nicole and they only grew wider when he pulled up outside of Purgatory’s finest, and only, ice cream parlour and asked what she wanted.

She picked out some kind of pink, cotton candy ice cream dotted with bits of candy and covered with a ton more that threatened to wash away in the liberal stripes of syrup and then eyed Nicole’s much plainer vanilla with its rainbow sprinkles with envious eyes.

And, of course, Nicole shared without complaint even when Waverly tried to share back and ended up smearing it all over Nicole’s cheeks.

Randy watched as they ran around the small park, their childish laughter filling the air as Nicole helped Chrissy and Waverly swing just a bit higher. And with one eye he kept a close watch on where Ward’s car was parked up. The fool of a man was in Shorty’s as usual and unlikely to step out for hours but he kept an eye on it all the same. Though, even if he did stagger out and looked over to the park he probably wouldn’t even recognise that Waverly was even his with the lack of attention he paid his daughter.

Right then, Waverly was thriving, her chubby face beaming with a huge smile as she leaned back on the swing into Nicole’s guiding push that sent the braided pigtails Nicole had given her flying back from beneath the brim of the cap she had somehow managed to talk Nicole into giving her.

That in itself was a miracle worthy of phoning the Vatican about as it had been glued to Nicole’s head since he put it on her head the day after he took her home. Some kids had stuffed toys or blankets, Nicole had a darn PSD issue cap for comfort. And Waverly had apparently picked Nicole as hers.

He looked down for a moment, only a moment as he thought about the joy Nicole had brought into all their lives and when he looked up the seats of the swings were empty and rocking drunkenly back and forth on their chains. His heart leapt into his throat in a way known to all parents at least ten times every day but a quick glance around and he found all three youngsters sitting on the grass in a tight huddle with their knees pressed together.

That was normal.

That was safe.

The glow he could see reflecting off their faces was not.

“Nicole Rayleigh!”

The tiny flame that she had been dancing between her fingers tips at her control shot into the air with a shower of sparks like a firework as Nicole’s body nearly left the ground as he barked out her name. It floated there for a moment and then Nicole drew it back into her mouth with a quick breath. That should have been the end of it, apart from the telling off he was going to give her about showing off in public. But Nicole had sucked it in too fast and with wide eyes released a strangled, hiccupping burp that had steam and a curl of smoke curling from her nostrils and the corner of her mouth. Waverly and Chrissy rolled on the grass laughing at the sight and Randy bit down on his lip to stop himself from joining them as Nicole let out a slightly pained grimace as she wafted at the smoke.

“Serves ya right, kiddo,” he chuckled softly and rubbed her back as she left the others and came to his side with a sheepish look on her face.

“I’m getting’ better at it, dad. Right?”

“Yeah, yes you are. But you know you need to be careful where you show off like that.”

“I know… it’s just…”

Randy hummed beneath his breath as Nicole cast a shy glance back over her shoulder in Waverly’s direction. “You like her, huh?”

“Yeah. Well, she’s okay for a baby. Kinda cute n all. Less bossy than Chrissy,” she whispered.

“Chrissy gets it from her mama,” he whispered back. “We’ve gotta get Waverly on home to her mama now but… if you come with me again tomorrow to pick up Chrissy you’ll be able to see her again. How does that sound?”

“Can we get ice cream again?”

“We’ll have to ask her mama about that. And definitely no telling your mama that you’ve been eating so close to dinner. Good girl,” he chuckled as Nicole mimed zipping her mouth. “Ya know,” he rubbed his stubbly chin thoughtfully. “I’ve got a couple of days off coming up soon. We could head off somewhere safe for you to practice… If you keep out of trouble until then young lady. No more showing off for pretty girls.”

Given the amount of wide-open spaces and trees that Randy swore seemed to pop up overnight around Purgatory, Nicole had recovered from what should have been a mind-numbingly traumatic experience and embraced the outdoors lifestyle with the kind of bounce-back that only the young seemed to be capable of. For his part of that night, Randy still had nightmares about drowning or watching his family floating down river just out of his reach.

Despite her love for the outdoors and the lure of being allowed to actually freely use her abilities, Nicole still actually had to pause and weigh up the second part about not showing off to Waverly, before she shook his hand to seal the deal. Once done, she ran off to play with the girls again in the time they had left before he called them back so they could take young Waverly home.

**********

The Earp homestead was quiet but there was a twitch of a curtain as Randy slowed his car and drove across the covered ditch and passed beneath the slightly crooked old lynch gate. He had no idea why Ward hadn’t taken the damn thing down a long time ago given the horrific and sad history held etched into it along with the grooves left by the ropes that had held the bodies of his ancestors when they had fallen short on their blood-soaked quests to break the Earp curse.

A glance in his mirror showed Waverly clutching at Nicole’s hand like a lifeline and Randy cursed Ward a thousand times over for all he and his family had done to put it there. She was two for god's sake! Her eyes should be shining with joy when she got home, not darkening with fear.

“You two stay put while I walk Waverly to her door,” he ordered gently but firmly as the homestead door swung open to reveal Michelle’s outline cast into shadow. He turned in his seat to reaffirm his instruction and ended up choking back a laugh as he saw Nicole’s eyes nearly pop clean out of her head as Waverly knelt on the seat beside her and threw her arms around her neck so she could plant a sloppy, and no doubt sticky, kiss on her cheek.

“Bye-bye, Cole!”

“Bye, Waves.”

With Waverly’s tiny hand in his, Randy led the toddler across the uneven ground towards her mama. Michelle looked… awful. There was no other word for the way she looked with her hair hanging in lank strands around a face that was sweaty and looked almost grey in the light. Typically of Ward, there were no marks where they would be too visible but Randy was certain he could see the edges of livid bruises showing just above the high collar of her blouse.

“Hi, baby girl!”

“Mama!”

“Did you have a good time with Uncle Randy?”

“Mhm! We had ice cream and swung in t’park!”

“You did, huh?

“Yup! Cole pushed us so high so I could touch the sky and fly!”

Michelle caught Randy’s gesture with his hand to indicate how low that flying had actually been as Waverly craned her whole body in her arms so she could wiggle her fingers to the shock of red hair and wide brown eyes looking at them over the edge of the window.

“Sounds like fun, babygirl. Do you want to go get cleaned up for me? Get rid of those sticky fingers?” As soon as Waverly was out of sight, Michelle ran out of energy to continue her pretence that everything was okay and sagged slightly against the doorway before she belatedly remembered that she wasn’t alone. “Thank you for taking care of my angel for me. Had a rough day. I kind of lost track of time and fell asleep on the couch.”

“Michelle—”

“Don’t! Please, don’t…” she begged brokenly at the care and understanding in his voice. “I need to get to work on Ward’s dinner. He— he’ll be upset if it’s not on the table waiting when he gets home.”

Her eyes flickered wildly like a spooked horse as he gently took her hands, holding them loosely so she knew she could escape if needed. He wanted to shout and rile at her to leave the bastard she called a husband. He wanted to drag her away to safety and then hunt his ass down and return every mark he had left on her tenfold.

But, unless he was caught doing something, the first step needed to come from Michelle and it sucked.

He’d been right there before with her and others. If he pushed right then she would just make excuses for him and pull away and she would get beat all the more for it.

“You’ve got my number and Emily’s right? If you need us for anything, absolutely _anything_, we are just a call away.”

“You’re a good man, Randy Nedley.”

“Naw, I’m just someone trying to do their best. Now, you don’t forget none Michelle, anything at all and we’ll be right with you.”

**********

Michelle sucked in a deep breath, steeling herself to re-enter her home as Nedley’s car vanished out of sight. It puffed out of her, hanging like a white cloud in the suddenly frigid air inside the old building. The cold crept up and down her spine, clawing its way through her clothing to chill her very soul as she moved closer to the source in the kitchen.

“All cleaned up, baby girl?”

There was not one word of acknowledgement from Waverly who was sitting at the table, her legs swinging back and forth as she scratched and scrawled furiously at a plain sheet of paper with a black crayon until she held it up with a blank, glazed look, to show a tiny stick figure almost engulfed with a darkness with two points of red for eyes and a gaping slit for a mouth that eerily matched what stood behind her.

“I don’t know what you are but I will not let you have my angel! You hear me!? You will not have her!!”

“Mama?”

“Come here, my angel!” Michelle wrapped her arms around Waverly’s tiny frame and frantically tried to brush the darkness that clung to shoulders away. It had been there almost from the moment Waverly had been born but it was getting stronger and stronger. She had talked to the Blacksmith though. She had a plan to free her from the demon and save her before it used Waverly up and killed her.

** _She is mine! And there is nothing you can do about it!_ **

“We’ll see about that!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN - I was a badddd author, this chapter was supposed to be about the fire in the barn but the muses went oh hell no, you are going to write what we want and we want baby Waves.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN - Feels like forever but my dragon muses finally started talking to me about this part instead of the smut I'm hoping they come back and help me with later in the story.

## 1998

Tugging down the peak of her new cap, the fourth of the summer, to better shade her eyes from the summer sun burning down from above, Nicole gazed up at the few, sparse scattering of fluffy white clouds lazily drifting by on the expanse of blue. Her hand dropped back to her side, mirroring the other as she spread herself out and moved her arms and legs to make an angel amongst the tall grass on the slope she was lying on.

Her motion and a stiff breeze sweeping across the land created a whispered, rustling sound as the tall stems bowed and swayed around her, rippling out across the field all the way down to the creek running along the bottom of it and the copse of trees beyond.

Nicole glanced through the sheltering screen of grass as the raucous sound of children drifted up towards her and she watched with envious eyes as Wynonna, her sister; Willa, and their friend Mercedes crossed over the creek and vanished into the trees.

She almost called out when she saw Wynonna but bit her tongue. As much as she would have liked to play with Wynonna and even Mercedes, there was something about Willa, a spiteful mean nature to her, that scared Nicole and made her scared for Waverly. Wynonna was tough and old enough to hold her own against her sister’s barbed tongue but Willa was physically rough with Waverly when she thought no one could see her.

Nicole saw what she did though, even when she wasn’t there to see Willa’s actions, she saw the nervousness in Waverly’s eyes each time and the bruises on her arms and legs when she was allowed to see her when she went with her dad to pick Chrissy up from daycare. She had tried talking to her mom and dad about it, and she could tell that they believed her, but, for some reason Nicole couldn’t understand, they wouldn’t do anything about it. The most she got from them was that all they could do was to make Waverly happy when they could.

That wasn’t enough for Nicole and she had taken great delight in giving Willa a hot foot one time when she had seen her yanking Waverly by the arm. Nicole regretted nothing about it. Not even when her dad had grounded her for a week without dessert for it… especially as her mom had snuck a dessert up to her anyway on the first night of her grounding and sat on her bed with her, and every night afterwards they had taken it in turns to pretend they weren’t breaking their own rules.

Anger and frustration burned through Nicole as Willa’s laugh floated towards her, bringing with it a wave of heat that radiated through her body and out through her skin. Her back itched between her shoulders but, it was the curl of smoke rising from beneath her hands where they pressed into the ground that cut through the anger. Nicole pulled it back, drawing the heat and promise of fire back into herself until all that remained was a last wisp of smoke that drifted away on the breeze.

Her dad would be mad if he knew… no, Nicole knew he would never be mad or even disappointed in her lack of control. But worried, he would _definitely_ be worried about it. That was why he took her out where no one could see her using them, while she tried to learn how to control them.

Nicole loved those camping trips out. Even if sometimes the memories of that night of the music festival, the fire, screaming, and her trip down the river in the canoe became almost overwhelming. On those trips though, she got to literally spread her wings and any fires around were under her control. Which was a good thing, as her dad _sucked_ at lighting the campfire.

Smiling at the memory, Nicole flopped back in the tall grass, her limbs akimbo as she soaked in the warmth of the sun.

“Ya look like a lizard basking in the sun.”

Cracking open her eyes, Nicole blinked up to see Wynonna’s face smirking down at her from where her friend had somehow managed to sneak up the hill to kneel behind her head in the grass.

Nicole attempted to sit up but Wynonna was fast and wily and somehow they ended up in a tangle of limbs, rolling down the gentle slope of the hill towards the bottom… and the cold water of the creek.

“Mother Hubbard!” Spluttering, Nicole slapped her hands into the water in the hopes of creating a wave big enough to wipe the grin off Wynonna’s face but her grin just got wilder and wilder, matching the laughter coming out of her mouth as she rolled around in the shallow water.

“Hubbard? Did you— Mother Hubbard?” Wynonna snorted as she wiped water and tears of joy from her face.

“I’m not allowed ta cuss.” Nicole pouted for as long as she could… which was only seconds before a laugh bubbled out of her mouth, pulled by the sheer joy on Wynonna’s face.

Eventually, they gathered themselves together enough to climb to their feet. The creek was barely deep enough to cover their ankles but rolling in it had left them soaked from head to toe and made for an uncomfortable, squishy, trudge as they slipped and scrambled back up the gentle slope of the hill to find a good spot to lay themselves out to dry off.

“Hey, you called me a lizard!” Nicole frowned and slapped Wynonna with her wet sock as Wynonna’s teasing suddenly came to her as she was wringing them out.

“Well, you were all…” flopping back dramatically, she moaned and wiggled around, mimicking her friend.

“I did not do all that,” Nicole snorted.

“As good as,” Wynonna smirked. “I thought all gingers avoided the sun? Mercedes goes beet red if she stays out too long.”

“Maybe Mercedes is a vampire?” Nicole giggled at the thought. She liked Mercedes. Mercedes was cool in a way Nicole couldn’t quite pinpoint and in a way the rest of her family weren’t. Especially Tucker. Tucker made Nicole’s skin crawl like the thought of touching a slug would even though he was about the same age as Waverly.

“That would be so cool! Unlikely though,” Wynonna sighed in disappointment. “She likes garlic too much to be a vampire. Would be cool though. Pa says—” she bit her lip, holding back a long list of all the things he said about the monsters that lurked in Purgatory.

“Huh?” Nicole looked up from the neat arrangement she was making with her shoes and socks in an effort to make sure they died as quickly as they could. There was nothing worse than walking in wet shoes. Wynonna was staring intently at the ground between her bare feet. “What does your pa say?”

“Nothin’. Nothing that makes sense.” Lifting her gaze, Wynonna brushed the subject and Nicole’s obvious confusion aside with an irreverent grin. “So, what are you doin’ out here besides being a lizard?”

“Not a lizard,” Nicole grumbled under her breath, her arms crossing defensively. She could change her shape into that of a dragon… She could breathe fire and fly. That’s if being able to hover about three foot off the ground could be called flying. But, she didn’t feel like a lizard… Wouldn’t she feel like a lizard if she were one? “I was sunbathing?”

“Sunbathing?” Wynonna scoffed at the word and gave Nicole’s clothing a raking glance.

Nicole gave a self-conscious tug on the long sleeves of her top and crossed her right leg over her left, making sure that the marks that ran down the left side of her body were carefully covered. Most of the time, according to her mom, they were barely even noticeable but Nicole _knew_ they were there and knew that in some lights, what her mom said looked like nothing to worry about, could catch the light and shine in a way that was not natural. Not human.

“I like the sun. I jus’ don’t like getting all red and burnt, and bitten by bugs,” she mumbled.

“Whatever, weirdo. Ya want to come play with us?”

“Can’t.” Really, the truth was that she didn’t want to. Not with Willa there, but saying that would always lead to Wynonna defending her sister because she was blind to her actions. So it was better that Nicole stayed away from her and the temptation to light her hair on fire to wipe the sour look off her face.

_That_ was definitely not the actions of someone not wanting attention.

“Goin’ camping with pa this weekend. We’re supposed to be headin’ out once he gets off shift.”

“And you’re worried about getting bitten by bugs out here?” Wynonna’s brow climbed.

“Erm… That’s why we go early, to get the tent set up properly before they get inside?”

“You are a weird redheaded lizard, Nicole,” Wynonna laughed. “I think that’s why I like you so much.”

“Thanks, I think. I kind of like you too.”

“Eww, don’t go getting mushy on me.” Smirking, Wynonna nudged Nicole in the side hard enough to nearly make her tumble back down the slope again. Sighing happily, she lay back in the grass, snapping off a stalk to chew on contentedly.

“You not going to go be with Willa and Mercedes?”

“Nope,” Wynonna drawled out, popping the P. I can catch up with those losers any time. Today is a day for playing lizard with you.”

“Jerk.” Shaking her head as Wynonna’s relaxed chuckle, Nicole lay back beside her friend and let the sounds of summer and the heat of the sun wash over her. “Hey, Wynonna?”

“Hmm?”

“Is Waverly okay? She wasn’t at daycare the last couple of days.”

“Mama kept her home. Said she’s sick.” Wynonna wasn’t sure what was wrong with her sister. Waverly had seemed fine enough to her but it must be bad as her Mama had screamed at their Pa that there was something wrong with her, that there was something _clinging_ to her. Even stranger, her Mama had been going through all the photos of Waverly right from when she had been born, demanding to know if they saw anything in them.

“Do you think it would be okay if I came over and visit when I get back from camping? Maybe I could bring her some soup or grapes. Does Waverly like grapes? That’s what you give sick people, right?”

“I think Waves would prefer it if you gave her another of your caps,” Wynonna sniggered as Nicole’s hands rose to clutch defensively at her hat that had somehow managed to survive their dunking in the creek.

“Another? She’s already got three of them,” Nicole sighed. “Well, would be worth another if it helps her feel better.”

Cracking open an eye, Wynonna slowly turned her head to give Nicole the full weight of her most serious gaze. “Weirdo.”

“You are.”

“No, _you_ are.”

Nicole shrieked in disgust and rolled away as Wynonna flicked the soggy piece of grass she had been chewing on right at her face and followed it with clumps of grass and dirt plucked straight from the ground.

**********

Randy smiled, happiness radiating out through his fingers as they tapped along the worn smooth cover of the steering wheel to the rhythm of the song coming slightly crackly through the speakers of the old truck and humming unconsciously from his daughter where she was slumped down tiredly in the seat beside him. Reaching out, he ruffled her hair through her pulled down cap. She grumbled only slightly and smiled widely as his laugh rose above the level of the music.

Their weekend had been good. Wearing, but good.

They had their favourite camping ground all mapped out. A piece of Purgatory where they were sheltered from view even as it allowed Nicole to stretch her wings and test herself. And stretch her wings she did. This time managing to get a good enough of a flight going… Enough of one that she almost tipped him out of the old rowboat he was using to fish from before she had crashed into the water.

As Nicole disliked him fishing, Randy was fairly certain that her splashdown had been deliberate to scare away the fish.

“Dad?”

“Yes, hun?” He turned his head slightly at the softness of her voice.

“Would it be okay if I go visit Waverly tomorrow?”

“Waverly?”

“Yeah, Wynonna said she wasn’t feeling too good. Thought maybe I could take her a gift to cheer her up. If that’s okay?”

“I’m sure that would be—” he broke off as blue and red lights flickered through the darkness, catching his eyes through the rear-view mirror. Sirens blaring, the engine flew past them, the breeze of their passing rocking the truck.

“What in the world? Nicole, pass me the—” He didn’t even need to ask as his daughter was already popping open the glovebox and reaching for the police radio inside. As it burst to life, he listened with a sinking heart to the codes that conveyed a message in panicked voices that usually held a professional calmness.

There was a fire at the Earp homestead.

One that was out of control enough that they were sending for more trucks and calling on the limited resources of the PSD to help out.

More than anything, he wanted to drop Nicole off at home but to get to their place in town meant having to drive past the homestead as there was no other road, and he could already see the orange-red glow of flames on the horizon.

“Nicole, honey,” he barked out as he pressed his foot down on the truck hard enough to get the old vehicle to lurch forward in a bone-rattling pursuit of the fire engine. “Listen to me very carefully. When we get there, you have to stay in the truck—”

“But—” Nicole shot up in the seat but her protest was quickly cut off with a sharp gesture from her dad before his hand returned to fiercely grip the wheel.

“There are no buts in this, Nicole! I need to know you are safe so I can help out. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” Nicole reluctantly relented.

“No getting out.”

“No, sir.”

“Good girl,” Randy gave her shoulder a quick squeeze.

**********

Even though he parked the truck well away from the burning barn, Randy could feel the heat from the flames even before he opened the door to step out. He paused, turning back to Nicole who was leaning forward as much as the restraint of the seatbelt would allow. Anyone else he would be worried that the heat would bother them but Nicole’s very nature meant that she was unphased by that at least. Her mismatched eyes were shadowed by concern, the left seeming to dance with flames of their own as much as a reflection of the fire as she turned to look at him questioningly.

“Stay put,” he ordered softly before closing the door and setting off at a run to where he could see Ward standing by his cruiser. Michelle was, for some reason, sitting in the back, her body still as a statue as she stared blankly straight ahead.

“Sheriff—” Before he could steel himself, Randy jumped aside as Michelle suddenly let out a scream and started slamming the side of her head against the window over and over. “What—”

“She did it,” Ward stated calmly as he watched the flame eating the barn rather than paying his wife any mind. Realising he maybe sounded a little too disinterested, he cleared his throat and turned to look at his Deputy. “I came home and found her in the barn. She’s been acting weird for a while but she was out there doing some kind of ritual.”

“Are the girls okay?”

“Willa and Wynonna are at the Gardner place for a sleepover.”

“And Waverly?” Randy frowned at the lack of a reply. “Sheriff? Sheriff… Ward!” Gripping him by the shoulder, Randy spun him around to face him. “Where is your daughter?”

Ward snorted, his lip raising in a sneer at the thought of the creature he was forced to call his own.

“I had to kill it! Had to try! It’s evil! Pure evil!”

Randy stared at Michelle in horror, his mind simply refusing to go where her words were leading him even as she returned to slamming her head against the window.

Ward leapt at them though, using her raving to bury her along with the bastard she had foisted upon him. “I couldn’t get Waverly out, Randy. Michelle had her in there. I got her out but the place went up before I could do anything to get Waverly out.”

**********

Nicole’s heart stopped dead in her chest as the Sheriff’s words made it to her ears through the open window.

Her body moved of its own accord, pulling her out of the truck and closer to the burning barn past the firemen that seemed more concerned with stopping the fire from spreading towards the house than in putting it out.

Nicole stumbled around the outskirts of the building, the flames dancing and splintering through her tears. She could feel the heat of it upon her skin and she hated the feel of what would usually bring comfort to her knowing what it would be doing to Waverly.

Waverly.

Her sweet friend with the beaming smile, dancing hazel eyes, and a fondness for her hair and claiming the hats that covered it for her own.

Waverly.

A soft whimper and a cough caught Nicole’s ear, stilling her mid-step. She strained to hear anything more over the roar of the fire and the snap and crackle of old timber been consumed. Then, just as she was about to give up, she heard it again, another cry, weaker than the last but enough to make her sob in relief.

“Waverly? Waverly! Help! Someone help!”

The flames and the sirens of another engine arriving drowned her out and Nicole didn’t dare move to the front of the barn to get help in case she lost Waverly.

“H-help.”

The plea was broken and tiny but it spurred Nicole into action.

Without even a glance around, she rushed towards the barn. There were no windows or doors at the back of the barn but Nicole didn’t need them. She shifted into her dragon form and burst through the burning wood into hell.

Nicole moved around, her eyes raking through the choking smoke as she searched for Waverly. Flames and burning wood rained down upon her and the tiny curled up figure she finally glimpsed through the heavy smoke.

A loud creaking sound from above turned into a splintering crack that rang out like a shot as the main beam splintered and started to fall down towards Waverly.

Rushing across the width of the barn, Nicole scooped Waverly up and wrapped her wings around her to protect her from the flames and debris as she made another hole in the side of the barn.

As the roar of one sound faded and grew into another, Nicole made out the thud of boots striking the ground vibrating across her scales. Panic raced through her veins like shards of ice but even though she could have, she didn’t run. She couldn’t. Not while Waverly needed her.

The footsteps stopped beside her and the shadow of a figure blocked out the light of the fire.

Lifting her head, Nicole’s whole body sagged in relief when she saw her dad kneeling beside her. Unfurling her wings, she revealed Waverly cradled within their protection.

“I told you to stay in the truck.” Randy’s breath shuddered out of him as he reached out to check with trembling fingers and found a pulse. “But thank god you didn’t.” Smiling softly, he rubbed a hand over the warm scales of Nicole’s shoulder. “You need to get out of here though. Keep out of sight and get back to the truck while I take Waverly to be seen to, okay?”

Randy watched as Nicole moved out of sight and picked the slight figure of Waverly up. A movement caught his eyes, drawing them across the land to the fence line that marked the border of the Earp property to where a figure he unfortunately knew was standing. Watching.

“Bobo,” he gritted out through clenched teeth.


	6. Chapter 6

## 1998

Randy removed his hat, his calloused fingers working a familiar path along well-worn creases and folds of his beloved Stetson as he made his way into the solemn, hushed interior of the old hospital that served Purgatory.

His booted heels fell into a lighter, almost respectful step under the judgemental gaze levelled upon him from the woman manning the long reception desk that dominated the too brightly lit waiting area of the main part of the hospital.

He stopped in front of her, awaiting her attention as she held up a finger to silence him and slowly, oh so torturously slowly, made a show of answering the phone and somehow communicated silently with whoever was on the other end.

“Deputy,” she finally deigned to acknowledge his presence as she placed the receiver back down in its cradle with a firm, decisive clunk that had the white plastic receiver rattling around after she lifted her hand to push the think, heavy frames of her glasses back up her nose so she could give his typically rumpled appearance the attention, and sneer, it deserved. For the life of her, she would never understand how someone so put together as Emily was, could allow her husband to leave the house in such a state.

“Ms Levinson.” Randy ignored the confrontational sneer in her voice and gave a ghostly tip of the hat that was still in his hands.

“I hope you haven’t come here on business. You know the hospital has _requested_, that the Sheriff’s Department give due notice before paying anyone a ‘visit’.”

Randy almost snorted aloud. Requested? Demanded was more accurate but He didn’t want to get into a pissing match right then as he didn’t want his visit to be reported back to Sheriff Earp. Who was the one responsible for said demands after he’d stormed into the hospital in a drunken rage and beat up a young doctor in a case of mistaken identity that he claimed had only happened because the doc hadn’t listened when he’d asked for identification. If he’d done that, everything would have been okay.

Not that it would have been any better even if Ward’s drunk ass had got the right person but, as Ward always insisted on telling the tale with the details tagged on to make it look like he’d been in the right, it was ingrained in his mind as a reminder not to repeat it without it for fear of occurring the wrath of Ward.

“I’ve just come to see how everything is going with young Waverly.”

Smiling the most winning smile he could manage, he moved sideways around the length of the long desk, drawing her gaze away from the familiar shock of red hair sneaking around the edges of the seating in the reception area towards one of the doors that led deeper into the hospital.

He had told Nicole to wait for him in the car. It seemed though that her need to know how Waverly was, had overcome her usual desire to do as he’d asked. And as doing the same had saved Waverly from certain death less than a week before, he found himself more lenient towards her instincts than his wife would like.

“Deputy, you know that information like that is available only for relatives—”

“I know that believe me, I do. Our youngest, Chrissy, is best friends with Waverly and I thought it would do her the world of good if I could take some good news home with me. She’s awfully worried about her and can barely sleep at night after what happened.”

“It was a terrible thing,” she nodded, sighing softly in understanding despite herself. “Such a terrible thing for anyone to go through but from one so young. If they ever find Michelle I hope they throw her in the deepest darkest hole for what she did to that little mite. She’s lucky to have such a strong and caring father.”

Randy bit his tongue so hard in an effort to hold back an outburst of anger and disbelief at her words that he could taste the copper tang of blood filling his mouth. It never ceased to amaze and sicken him how, despite knowing what a mean drunk Ward Earp was, people were somehow all too willing to overlook everything and swallow the lies he told even when they had seen first hand how he could be.

A few minutes of crocodile tears and acting the good father and he had everyone forgetting every bruise Michelle had had to conceal behind a layer of makeup and every trip to the hospital to mend a broken bone. Even the firefighters that had born witness to him standing calmly by while the barn had burned with Waverly trapped inside had chalked it up to an overwhelming emotional response that had frozen him in place.

In anyone else, Randy might have been willing to believe it himself if he hadn’t seen Ward in his office just days after the fire. Where, instead of being with his daughters at Waverly’s bedside, he was kicking back with a drink of whiskey in one hand enjoying the services of a sex worker that was enjoyed by men that enjoyed the attention of women that looked much younger than they were.

Much, much younger.

It had taken every ounce of restraint not to draw back his fist or the hammer on his gun before the realisation that the woman was wearing a dress he was pretty sure was like one he had seen young Willa wearing that summer had sent him running for the nearest trash can.

“Yeah,” he gritted out darkly, “Ward’s an absolute… prince.”

**********

With trepidation in every step of her worn kicks that squeaked upon the polished floor, and the harsh scent of disinfectant burning a path down her nose and into her lungs, Nicole edged her way down one brightly painted corridor after another. She followed the vague and confusing signs that one moment said she was on the right path to the Children's Ward only for them to change their mind and send her back the way she had come.

Her heart skipped and pounded at every noise, fearing that she would hear someone challenge her right to be there. Clutching the straps of her backpack so tightly her knuckles went white, determination tightening her jaw, Nicole kept going until, finally, the starkly painted, white walls exploded into a riot of too cheery colours that marked the start of the Children’s Ward.

Despite the colourful array of paint and posters, there was an eerie quietness to the area. A blanket of despair that was broken by soft moans of pains and the beeping of machines muffled behind closed doors and always, always, that same smell of disinfectant.

Nicole willed herself not to sneeze as the sudden fear of setting fire to something overrode the fear of getting caught.

“You don’t belong here.”

Nicole spun around at the gruff voice coming from directly behind her. Her sight flashed with white that pounded and pulsed with the beat of her heart as it rabbited against her ribs and attempted to climb up out of her throat.

Through the startled white of her vision, she gradually made out the figure behind it but, instead of the comforting sight of a uniform-clad nurse, doctor or one of the security officers that should have been roaming the corridors, there was a bearded man with mismatched clothing, and cold, piercing blue eyes that felt like they were trying to burrow into her mind and see what made her tick.

She backed away nervously from the strange-looking man, sensing the danger radiating from him as he followed her step for step, a predatory glint in his eyes as he reached for her with fingers hooked ready to claw and dig into her flesh.

“You need to leave!”

“No!”

He stopped dead in his tracks, the tips of his fingers barely brushing the fabric covering Nicole’s shoulders as she straightened them determinedly. His head tilted birdlike to one side quizzically, his body shifting as his stroked his other hand across the top of his head and down over his ragged looking beard.

“No?”

“No?” Nicole straightened up further as a smirk twisted his lips. “I’m going to see my friend,” she stated clearly, her chin jutting determinedly.

“Such a _fiery _little thing!”

Nicole’s body jolted slightly, alarm bells ringing through her head telling her to run or scream for help at the knowing look in his eyes. He knew! Somehow, he knew what she was!

“I like you, kid,” he chuckled. “So, who is this friend you are here to see?”

“Waverly.”

“Waverly?”

He looked no less strange or dangerous to Nicole but his voice softened and his lips twisted into a genuine smile as he whispered Waverly’s name with a fondness reserved for a proud parent. But, as quickly as it had appeared, the softness fell away as he focussed his strange attention on her again.

“Waverly isn’t here.”

“But—” Nicole’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“Oh, she’s in these walls, just not in _this_ part of them,” he waved his hand around in a grand gesture that encompassed the ward. “I had her moved—”

“Where is she? Who are you?”

Any response he was about to give was cut off by a wave of curiosity and triumph as his suspicions from the night of the barn fire were finally confirmed as the girl's eyes burned at him with the heat of a thousand suns, and curls of smoke wafting from flared nostrils and billowed from the corners of tightly pressed lips.

He’d been too far away that night, prevented from moving nearer by the bedrock the Earp homestead stood upon to know for certain that she and the dragon were one and the same. But, he had known. After all, there had been no mistaking the figure of Deputy Nedley even against the backdrop of the fiercely burning building and there were only so many little kids that had suddenly appeared in his life.

Triumph waned, turning to fear that churned his stomach as his eyes lit upon a figure lurking at the end of the ward. They were cast in shadow but there was no mistaking the slimy, oily movements of the Revenant they called the Jack of Knives.

Bobo had a firm hand on most of the revenants. However, the ones that made up the Seven were beyond his control. They were responsible for the deaths of all the Earp heirs and they thirsted for a shot at Ward and his girls.

If they knew there was a dragon in Purgatory or what Waverly was— If any of them knew—

“Nicole! Come here to me, honey. Let her go right now, Bobo!”

Bobo looked down, not realising until the girl whimpered that he had grabbed her by the shoulders when he had seen Jack.

“Bobo!”

Hearing the sharp click as Nedley cocked his pistol, Bobo slowly released his grip. “Go on now,” he gave her a firm push in the right direction but kept his eye on where he had seen Jack last. Only when he was sure he was gone, did he turn around to watch as Nicole barrelled into Nedley’s legs.

“You okay?”

“Yes, dad. I- I’m sorry I left the car. I just wanted to see Waves but—”

“But, as I just told her, Waverly isn’t down here.”

“What in the hell have you done, Bobo?” Randy hissed urgently.

“Now, now, Randy—”

“That’s Deputy Nedley to you, Bobo Del Rey. Now, where’s Waverly?”

“Put your gun away, Deputy. No need to scare anyone and cause a panic in the Children’s Ward of all places.” Smirking, Bobo walked past the Deputy and signalled for him to follow with a click of his tongue like he was calling a dog to heel.

“She’s safe,” he muttered barely above a whisper once he had another door between them and anyone, especially anyone with demon ears, that might try to listen in. “I think we all know that there are ‘people’ that would love nothing better than to find an Earp alone no matter what age they are.” Bobo stopped in his tracks, turning and crouching in a fluid move that put him at eye level with Nicole. “Waverly is one flight up in the Burns Ward if you want to go pay her a visit while I talk to your… _dad_. That would be okay, wouldn’t it, Deputy Nedley?” He glanced back over his shoulder, cocking a brow at him.

“Go on up, Nicole. I just need a word with Bobo here.”

“But—?”

“Everything is okay, honey. But, if it isn’t…” leaning closer, he brushed her hair back off her face with a gentle hand. “Give a roar and I’ll come running, okay?” He gave her a wink as her eyes twinkled with a spark of fire in acknowledgement of what he was telling her she could do if needed.

He waited patiently until his daughter was out of sight and then he grabbed Bobo by the front of his ragged jacket and forced him into the nearest bathroom.

“What in the hell kind of a game are you playing, Bobo!?”

“Game?” yanking himself free, Bobo smoothed down the front of his jacket. “I’m playing a very dangerous game where I’m trying to keep Waverly and now your so-called daughter safe from my own kind.”

“Nicole—”

“Is not your kin so don’t even try to claim otherwise with me!”

Randy stepped back, his hand tightening around the grip of his weapon as Bobo spun sharply with a feral roar gritty with the fires of hell that burned in his eyes, and punched his fist through the mirror.

Blood and glass trickled down into the sink below as Bobo pulled his hand back and stared at the mess he had made of his own flesh for a moment. Head tilting, he dragged his tongue over his knuckles opening fresh cuts to his lips and tongue, painting his teeth red, as they caught on the shards of glass still embedded in his hand.

“She shouldn’t be here. The Ghost River Triangle is no place for her kind and if she stays, she will die—”

With a roar of his own, Randy grabbed Bobo and slammed him face-first against the broken mirror. He pressed harder and harder against the back of his head, grinding his face against the broken glass until blood flowed freely.

“You stay away from my family, Bobo! Stay away or I will find a way to put your sick, twisted ass back in hell permanently!”

From his position on the floor where Nedley had thrown him, Bobo watched with a newfound respect for the Deputy as he stormed towards the bathroom door, his body vibrating with anger.

“Deputy!” Bobo called out as he pushed himself up off the floor and leaned against the nearest wall. The part of him that he had lost to the fires of hell snapped and snarled at the chains of the kind man he had been, demanding that he turn his back or simply plunge a knife into the other man’s.

Randy froze, his fingertips brushing against the handle of the door.

In the end… Robert Svan won out over Bobo Del Rey.

“There is more going on in Purgatory than you know. When you’re ready to listen, let me know. It might just save the lives of your family and mine if you do. Until then, take care of your kid. And I don’t mean that as a threat,” he assured him as his fingers tightened on his weapon even more. “She saved Waverly’s life. I owe her for that.”

“Stay _away_ from her, Bobo.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Tightening his hand around the handle, Randy yanked open the bathroom door and walked away to go find his daughter.

**********

It felt to Nicole like it took forever but finally, she could see Waverly. She looked so small, her body lying on a bed made for adults, surrounded by an array of intimidating machines that seemed to beep and squark at random.

She wished more than anything that her dad was there to take her the rest of the way but, she knew he was busy and that scared her too. The man he’d called Bobo was strange in a bad way. Her dad was a Deputy though. The best dang Deputy in the whole world…

And she really wanted to feel his strong, work-roughened hand ruffling her hair in the way he knew she hated, and to smell that mix of coffee, leather polish, gun powder and the hint of whiskey he thought no one knew about as well as the mints he used to try to hide the smell behind. Everything that she had come to think of as home.

Waverly was right there though, her chest rising and falling beneath the thin hospital sheets with each breath, her heavily bandaged hands resting on top of them.

“Waverly?”

Sneaking into the room, Nicole edged closer to the side of the raised bed but Waverly didn’t stir even when she repeated her name. Her skin was cold where Nicole touched her thin forearm in the gap left between the paper-thin hospital gown and bandage. However, through the white strip wound around her hand, Nicole could feel the heat of pain and flames radiating from her.

She brushed her thumb across the back of Waverly’s tiny hand, eliciting a soft whimper from her friend even though she’d barely brushed the fabric.

“Waves?” she tried again, her eyes raking over Waverly’s too pale face for the slightest hint that she had been heard. “Why won’t she wake up?” Nicole blinked up through a haze of tears, begging for an answer as her dad came to stand at her side and lay the comforting weight of his hand upon her shoulder.

“They’ve given her something to help with her pain and it’s helping her sleep.” At least he hoped that was the case and Bobo hadn’t slipped her something to knock her out. He would have to check before they left but right then he didn’t want to worry Nicole any more than she already was.

A soft whimper fell from Waverly’s lips to break the bubble of silence that had fallen between them and had Nicole springing into action. Randy watched, a soft smile on his face as Nicole unfolded a blanket that had been inexplicably left at the bottom of the bed and pulled it up to cover Waverly. She fussed and plucked at every crease like a mother hen, smoothing it out before letting out a loud exclamation that made him jump. Rolling his eyes, he helped her out of the backpack before she spun herself dizzy trying to reach into it without taking it off her back.

“Nicole. What in the world? Stop moving a second, girl. There.” He handed it over, shaking his head fondly as she flashed him the biggest, widest smile in existence before damn near plunging her whole body into the bag and pulling out her favourite stuffed bunny with a cry of triumph.

Then she froze.

The fluffy toy clutched in her arms.

A look of concern creasing her brow as she looked at Waverly. For a moment, just a moment, he wondered if Nicole had changed her mind about giving up the toy she held at night. He would understand if she had as it had been the one they had gotten her to help smooth out her nightmares when she had joined their family. He opened his mouth ready to offer to buy a new one either for her or for Waverly but the words caught at the back of his throat, held there by the concern in soft brown eyes gazing up at him.

“It— it’s so soft but— it won’t hurt her hands will it, dad? I don’t want to hurt her more.”

“I’m sure it won’t, honey. Maybe you could leave it on the table or the foot of the bed where she can see it when she wakes up. Ya know, just in case?”

She wasn’t listening. Not to anything Randy could hear.

Her voice a soft mutter beneath her breath, a barely heard jumble of words like ‘heat’ and ‘burning’, she leaned closer to the bed, her hand oh so gently easing its way beneath one of Wavery’s.

Randy moved to stop her, he swore he tried, but the moment felt important and his movements too slow. In the end, all he could do was watch in silent vigil as Nicole bent forward, her red hair cascading around her face to obscure her features if not the glow of her eyes or the marking that ran down her face.

His breath caught in wonder as Nicole ghosted a soft kiss to the palm of Waverly’s bandaged hand. She never even touched the fabric but then, she didn’t need to. He could see the haze of heat rising up from them, flowing from Waverly and into Nicole as she kissed one hand and then the other.

She was taking back the fire and the pain it had caused.

The only time he had seen something similar was when they went camping and she used her abilities to build or dampen the campfire. But, he’d never imagined that she could do what she seemed to be doing right then though and, if it had been anyone but Nicole, he might have been worried at the implications. But, it was Nicole. Sweet and gentle Nicole. Fiercely loyal and born without a single mean bone in her body.

She drew the pain right out of her friend. Her only thought to bring peace and relief. And, for good measure, she covered Waverly in a breath of warm air that blanketed her body and pushed back the chill of the room.

Fighting back tears of relief, Randy ended up letting out a breathless snort of a laugh as Waverly opened her eyes to grab at the stuffed bunny Nicole offered her. Then, with eyes drifting closed, she buried her nose into plush fur and breathed in deeply as she curled up around it and let out a sighed, sleepy murmur.

“’nilla doughnuts. Ma favourite.”

“Deputy?”

Randy shielded Nicole’s body with his home as he turned around to face the owner of the soft voice behind him.

“Sorry to disturb you,” the nurse smiled apologetically. “The surgeon is on his way to check up on Waverly’s burns so…”

“Time for us to leave? Of course,” he nodded in understanding, knowing full well that even if they were related, they wouldn’t want them around when the bandages were unwrapped. “Come on, Nicole, time to let the doctors and nurses do their jobs.”

With a guiding hand on his daughter's shoulder, he guided her from the room and past the surgeon striding through the corridor. He knew the man by reputation and by gossip shared by Emily from the hairstylist when anyone around Purgatory was sporting a new nose or had suddenly gone up a few bra sizes.

“Can I see Waverly tomorrow?”

“We’ll see. That was nice of you to give her your bunny,” he smiled at the thought of how Waverly had held it close.

“Waverly needed it more.”

“Would you like a new one?”

“I would prefer ice cream.”

“Ice cream, huh?”

“Mhm, we have to pick up Chrissy though so she can have some too. Can I push the buttons?” Nicole asked eagerly as her dad stopped in front of the elevator even though they were only one floor up.

“One button,” he warned at the glint of mischief in her eyes.

“Do you think Waverly would like an ice cream tomorrow? I’ve got some allowance left.”

“Nurse!”

Randy glanced over his shoulder as he steered Nicole into the elevator when the doors had finally slid open at their typically torturously slow speed. The plastic surgeon emerged from Waverly’s room looking a mixture of confused and angry.

“Yes, doctor?”

“My time is very, _very_ valuable so, please, tell me, why was I called down here exactly? That child’s hands are perfectly fine. Not a burn or blemish on them.”

Randy leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of Nicole’s head. He didn’t know how but he knew that somehow, someway, Nicole had healed Waverly.

“Dad?”

“Press as many buttons as you want, kid.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN - Getting this chapter done was like pulling teeth. I even tried locking myself away from the TV and the dogs down our summer house (sounds grander than it is). Unfortunately... the dogs followed me -_- Managed it in the end though.
> 
> *pausing to throw ball to whining golden retriever*
> 
> AN 2 - I'm kind of regretting not doing something to delay the BBD agents after Nicole 'cause they feel like a problem lurking on the edge of my mind.
> 
> AN 3 - Bobo was supposed to tell Randy when he knows in this chapter but Bobo went quiet and Nicole batted her lashes and said she wanted more time with Waves.
> 
> *pausing to throw ball to whining golden retriever again*
> 
> AN 4 - Anyway, hope you're all doing well and keeping safe. Everything is relatively quiet and terrifying in Bulgaria with some deaths close but not close enough to affect us.
> 
> AN 5 - Dog is driving me crazy so I'll just hit post on this and go take some headache tablets.


	7. Chapter 7

## Summer 1999

“Cole?”

Nicole looked up from where she was lying sprawled upon the sleeping bag covered air mattress. Glancing over the top of the comic she was lost in she looked at the shadowy outline of her sister where it was cast upon the closed flap of the tent.

The air of the tent, warm with the trapped summer heat, was filled by the groan that spilt out of Wynonna’s mouth at the disturbance of the ‘bratty kid sister free area’ of their shared sleepover.

Nudging her friend in the side with her foot as Wynonna flopped around moaning and grumbling dramatically, Nicole scrambled up to her knees and scooched over to the tent flap.

“Comin’.”

As fast as a snake striking, Wynonna’s hand wrapped around her ankle.

Nicole barely had time to register the sudden feeling of restraint or Wynonna’s evil chortle, before her eyes nearly bugged out of her head as Wynonna pulled her back towards her, rolled her onto her back, and flopped her weight heavily down across her tummy as she sat on her, pinning her hands beside her head as she did so.

“Cole?”

“On my way!” Nicole called back over her shoulder at the confusion in Chrissy’s voice at the strange noises coming from within. “Wynonna, get off! Yer too heavy!”

Nicole had no idea what she had said wrong but Wynonna’s loud, offended gasp told her she had said _something_ wrong.

“Are you calling me… fat?”

“What?” Nicole blinked up at Wynonna in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

Her eyes bugged again, her body growing stiff under Wynonna’s determined grip as her friend gave a grin that was evil incarnate and started hawking spit up into her mouth.

“Wynonna! Wynonna! No! Don’t you dare!”

Nicole wiggled for all she was worth but Wynonna was stronger than she looked even though there was only a year between them. Her lips parted, spit starting to ooze out and string down towards her face. Nicole did the only thing she could think of short of setting Wynonna’s fat butt on fire and blew a stream of warm air up, drying Wynonna’s spit filled mouth as dry as a desert.

Coughing at the sudden nothingness in her mouth, Wynonna stuck out her tongue in confusion, her eyes crossing as she attempted to get a look at it and get the juices in her mouth flowing again.

Smirking, Nicole wiggled out from under Wynonna’s suddenly lax grip and opened the zipper on the tent to reveal her little sister standing there surprisingly patiently despite the whooping and hollering, and now the choked gagging sounds coming from within.

“Everything okay, Chrissy?”

“Water! Need water!”

“Nonna ‘kay?”

“Yep,” Nicole chuckled, running her fingers through Chrissy’s soft blonde hair as she sat on her lap to watch the meal Wynonna was making out of chugging a bottle of water. “What are you doing out here? Do mom and dad know you’re out here?”

“Nuh-uh. I was missing you.”

Swiping out her arm, Nicole knocked Wynonna’s nearly empty water bottle, spraying her friend in the face to drown out her fake gagging noises.

Really, sometimes Wynonna could be too much like Willa when she spent too much time hanging around with her.

“Waverly’s sad,” Chrissy whispered sadly against the warmth of Nicole’s shoulder.

Nicole glanced down at the mop of blonde hair laying against her and then at Wynonna. Her friend gave a shrug, her face falling into lines of concern.

“She’s been moping all week,” Wynonna finally admitted. “Won’t even tell me what’s going on and she usually tells me everything.”

Not everything, Nicole thought as Wynonna still seemed to be blissfully oblivious to Willa’s bullying even though it seemed to have gotten worse since their mama had been taken away.

“Maybe she’ll talk to you. Not sure why but she seems to like you.”

“I like her too.”

“Eww!”

With a dramatic eye roll at Wynonna’s antics that had Chrissy giggling, Nicole took her sister by the hand and led her from the tent back across the yard to the house. The short grass, burnt by the summer heat, prickled the bottoms of her bare feet with every step but she enjoyed the contact with the warm earth even if her mom shook her head and tutted a little at the dirt she tracked through into the kitchen on them.

“It’s nearly time for dinner but, would you girls like some cookies out there while they’re fresh?”

“Mhmm, yes please.” Eyes closed, Nicole hungrily breathed in the sweet, mouthwatering, buttery scent of fresh-baked cookies.

“Chrissy, wait your turn. I’m getting a plate ready for you and Waverly when they cool a little more.”

“Is it okay if I take Waverly’s up to her now, mom?”

Emily paused, the cookie she had been putting on top of the pile ready to go out to the tent forgotten as she turned to look questioningly at Nicole. Her daughter never even noticed as her attention already seemed to be one floor up where the bedrooms were.

Where Waverly still was, she realised almost belatedly.

“Waverly sad,” Chrissy supplied helpfully while attempting to reach over the counter for a cookie.

Chrissy’s words brought a frown to Nicole’s brow that had Emily hurrying to fill a small plate with warm cookies and pouring milk into a couple of plastic tumblers.

“Come on,” leaning over, she placed a fond kiss to the crown of Nicole’s head, “I’ll carry the milk up for you if you grab the cookies. Chrissy, I know exactly how many cookies there are on that tray and there better be the same amount when I get back,” she warned as she saw Chrissy’s tiny hand reaching over the counter once more. “I give her two minutes before she breaks.”

Nicole stifled a giggle as a cookie vanished from the pile and into Chrissy’s mouth as soon as their mom’s back was turned.

Keeping her sister’s cookie stealing secret, she carefully balanced the plate of cookies and followed her mom up the narrow stairs past the family photos decorating the walls like a moving march through time that started with a one of her mom and dad’s wedding. It looked so old fashioned to her but she loved the way they looked at each other instead of the camera. After that came ones of baby photos of Chrissy and then ones of them all as a family.

There were none of her as a baby and that always made her a little sad as it always made her wish she could have been born into their family. And that always made her feel a little guilty and sad because she knew her real parents had loved her but… they were gone and she loved the life, the family, that she had there.

As they reached the closed door of the bedroom she shared with Chrissy, her mom raised the glasses of milk, silently reminding her that her hands were full and gesturing her forward.

Nicole juggled and fumbled with the plate, almost spilling the cookies as a sudden wave of nervousness rushed through her. Steadying herself, knowing there was nothing to fear, she knocked on the door before pushing it open for them both.

Waverly was sitting on her bed, her shoulders rising and falling with every quiet, wet sniffle that wracked her body, and every sob that was muffled and absorbed by the plush bunny that had once comforted Nicole.

Emily held back her natural instinct to go and comfort the poor mite herself and nudged Nicole forward even as it felt like an unfair burden to be putting on her daughter. She knew she had made the right decision for both of them though when Waverly caught sight on Nicole through the tears shining in her big hazel eyes and launched herself, toy and all, into Nicole’s arms.

She lingered long enough to put down the glasses of milk and to make sure she wasn’t needed before quietly leaving to make sure Chrissy had restrained herself enough to leave more than crumbs for everyone else.

Nicole gently patted and rubbed at Waverly’s back as the little girl dampened her shirt with her tears. Apart from the occasional sniffle and quiet sob, she was quiet, too quiet in a way that made Nicole wonder if she was used to something bad happening if she was too loud. Nicole stayed quiet with her, whispering quiet reassurances and making nonsense noises she hoped Waverly would draw comfort from.

Finally, Waverly’s tears slowed and then stopped and Nicole reluctantly let her draw back from their hug. Hazel eyes peered up at her shyly, a soft smile teasing the corners of her mouth as her eyes traced a path from the red of her hair down the side of her face where her markings lay. The way she looked at what she had always been told to hide had Nicole shifting around nervously but she grew still again as Waverly’s tiny hand cupped that side of her face, the pads of her fingers ghosting across the markings as a look of wonderment replaced the sorrow in her eyes.

“Vanilla.”

“Huh?”

“You smell like vanilla doughnuts… like Mr Hopkins.”

“Oh.” Nicole blinked in confusion, instinctively steadying Waverly as she sat beside her. “Is— is that a bad thing?”

“Naw! I love ‘nilla dipped doughnuts,” Waverly smiled shyly up at Nicole as she dared to lean into her warmth a little more. She liked Chrissy’s sister. She was always so gentle with her and always had time and a smile to give. All things that had become a rarity at home.

Pa never smiled any more unless he was drunk. But when he was drunk he was mean with it. Willa was just always mean if there was no one around to see her and then there was Wynonna who loved her but hung around with friends that didn’t want her ‘bratty baby sister’ following them.

Apart from Nicole.

Even when Nicole was with Wynonna, she didn’t seem to mind one little bit if she was there and made sure to include her in what they were doing if she was, and that made Wynonna not mind either.

“Well, that’s good.”

“Yeah?” Waverly scooched a little closer to bask in the warmth of Nicole’s smile that was wide enough that it made a dimple pop in her cheek.

“Yep, wouldn’t like to smell of somethin’ you didn’t like.” She tapped the tip of Waverly’s little button nose with her finger, pulling a giggle from her. “Hope you like chocolate chip cookies too, Ma made us some. Oh! And there’s a glass of milk too,” she gestured towards the waiting glasses and plate.

“That’s a lot of cookies. Don’t think I could eat them all,” Waverly cast hopeful eyes up at Nicole, desperate for the older girl to stay with her but not daring to ask for fear of rejection or worse.

“Silly,” Nicole chuckled lightly, “they’re for both of us… That is if you don’t mind me staying with you for a bit?” Nicole rubbed at the back of her neck in a self-conscious gesture.

“You— you want to— You want to stay with me?” Waverly ducked her head shyly, hiding a tentative smile that was trying to break out into a grin at the thought.

“Of course! You’re my friend, Waverly. Why wouldn’t I want to?” Nicole gestured for Waverly to get comfortable on her bed. Once she was settled amongst the pillows arranged against the headboard with the stuffed bunny, Mr Hopkins placed carefully beside her, Nicole handed Waverly the biggest, best-looking cookie she could find and placed the plate of cookies on the bed between them.

They ate and drank in comfortable silence for a time. The quite broken by the crunch of cookies, soft murmurs of appreciation and the whisper of fabric as Waverly moved closer to lean sleepily against her side. Steeling herself, Nicole brushed cookie crumbs off her shirt. She really didn’t want to disturb that moment that had Waverly so relaxed but—

“Waves?”

“Hmm?”

Nicole smiled as Waverly mumbled around her cookie and burrowed closer. “Are— are you feelin’ okay? Chrissy said you were sad?”

She regretted asking as Waverly stiffened and made to move away with a look that was too much like fear on her face.

“Hey.” She placed a tender hand on Waverly’s shoulder, offering comfort. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, Waves.” Hazel eyes brimming with tears gazed up at her warily but slowly, Waverly started to relax minutely under the sweeping brush of her thumb across her shoulder. “We can just sit here and be if that’s what you want. But, if you do want to talk… At any time…”

Waverly gathered Mr Hopkins to her chest and crawled into Nicole’s arms, squishing her beloved toy as she filled her lungs and soul with the vanilla scent of them both.

“Willa was mean,” she finally admitted in the softest of whispers against the older girls neck. “She— I went into Pa’s study. Not supposed to but I did anyway. She saw me and threatened to tell on me. Said Pa would take his belt to me or kick me out.”

“I’m sure he—”

“Willa said she wouldn’t tell… if I walked across one of the beams in the barn. It was _so_ high, Nicole! So high I thought I was gonna fall off!”

Nicole swallowed down the anger and tears that were threatening to choke her at the anguish in Waverly’s trembling voice.

“I— was scared. So scared. I made it though. When I got down, Willa said he was gonna tell Pa what I’d done and pushed me over. She said no matter wha’ I did, I would never be the hair like what she is. I— I don’t know what she means, Nicole. I’ve got hair. Right?” Lifting her head, Waverly frowned up at Nicole in confusion.

“You’ve got beautiful hair, Waverly. Hair for days,” winding a long curl around her finger, Nicole gave it a gentle tug. “What Willa did was— it was horrible. If she does anything again. Even scares you, you come to me or my Pa, ‘kay?”

“I don’ want you to get in trouble too.”

“I can take care of myself,” Nicole puffed up her chest in an attempt to look bigger and braver. The truth was that the Sheriff scared her but, if he or Willa did anything to Waverly, there was nothing she wouldn’t do.

As far as Nicole was concerned, Waverly was an angel and she deserved to be treated like one… even though she kept taking her hats.

And speaking of hats…

As though sensing her thoughts, Waverly’s eyes glanced to the side and lit up. With a soft smile, Nicole reached behind herself and plucked the hat Waverly had been converting all summer and placed the straw Stetson her mom and dad had gotten her from the Summer fair, on Waverly’s head. Sized for what Wynonna called her big head, it caught on Waverly’s ears but slipped down over her brow to almost cover her eyes.

And Waverly couldn’t have looked happier about it as Nicole tiled it back at an angle to reveal her beaming smile that crinkled her eyes to crescents.

“There,” Nicole tapped the brim of the hat with her finger. “Looks much better on you.”

“I can keep it?”

“Sure,” Nicole reassured her.

“For realls?”

“For realls.”

With a squeal of delight, Waverly launched herself against Nicole, crashing their bodies together as she wrapped her arms tightly around her neck. Nicole’s arms wrapped around her body, holding her close and secure as she struggled to balance them against the bounce of the bed. A rich laugh tickled her ears and vibrated through her body as Waverly burrowed against Nicole and breathed in the familiar vanilla scent trapped within the strands of fragrant red hair that tickled the tip of her nose.

“I’d better go check on Wynonna. Do you want to come with?” Nicole asked as Waverly’s face fell a little.

“Rather stay here,” Waverly mumbled quietly, not quite ready to face anyone let alone her sister.

“That’s fine, Waves.” Sliding to the edge of the bed, Nicole straightened the hat sitting crookedly on Waverly’s head with a wink. “That’s better. I’ll be right back, okay?”

“’kay.”

With Wynonna around, Nicole really should have known better than to walk anywhere without paying attention. But, in all fairness, never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that Wynonna would come tumbling backwards through the door to land at her feet when she opened it.

“Earp!?”

From her unexpected position on the floor of Nicole’s bedroom, Wynonna blinked up at her friend, shock giving way to a snorted out laugh at the startled, wide-eyed expression on her face.

“What the heck are you doing?”

“Right now? Looking up your nose, dude.” Rolling and scrambling to her knees, nimbly avoiding the shove Nicole tried to give her, Wynonna met her baby sister’s eyes and remembered why she had been lurking around outside the room in the first place.

Waverly was sad and hurting. It should have been her offering her comfort and not Nicole but once she had heard the softness of Nicole’s voice and how she had calmed Waverly, her need to barge in and save the day had simmered down knowing Waverly was in good hands with her friend.

“Hey, baby girl. You feeling okay?”

“Mhm. Nicole gave me a hat!”

“So I see,” Wynonna chuckled as she sat on the edge of the bed by her sister who was clutching her stuffed bunny to her chest and beaming up from beneath the brim of the slightly too big hat. The sight of her smile, so warm and genuine, so Waverly, warmed Wynonna’s heart even as it cracked it wide open realising how little she had seen it since…

Since…

Since Mama…

Since she had…

Wynonna couldn’t even complete the thought it was too painful.

She could hold Waverly though and she did so, pulling her into a tight hug right there and then. And, as soon as she could, she snagged Nicole and pulled her into their hug too for being there, and for making Waverly happy.

“Oh! Nearly forgot!” Clearing her throat, Wynonna dashed away the very idea of tears against the sleeve of her t-shirt. “Your Ma said she ‘hoped you’d left room for burgers’ as your Pa is ‘firing up the grill’,” she air quoted. “Hold on… left room? Did you eat something’?” She gasped at the treachery as her eyes fell on the empty plate and glasses. “You did! You sneaks ate without me!”

Seeing the attack coming a mile away from the glint of mischief in Wynonna’s blue eyes, Nicole darted off the bed to watch before Wynonna could grab her and pull her into the torture that was Wynonna’s boney fingers intent on tickling. Nicole had fallen victim to it before and had nearly hiccupped flames out of her nose.

“Burger time, girls! Get them before they get burnt to ash!”

“Woman! I am not that bad!”

“No, Randy… you’re worse,” Emily chuckled as Randy waved a pair of tongues at her. “But I love you anyway.” Grabbing him by the front of his apron, she did as it suggested and gave him a kiss that left him flustered and blustering long after the girls charged down the stairs with all the grace and elegance as a herd of charging baby elephants.

**********

Randy was thankful that the moon was full in the sky that night as it meant he didn’t need to use his police-issue flashlight to go check up on the girls in the tent. Not that he _really_ needed to get close as their soft snores could be heard from behind the closed kitchen door.

Crouching down, he quietly opened the flap on the tent and peeked inside.

If the day had gone to plan, which it so rarely did with kids around, Nicole and Wynonna should have been camping out for the night for their part of the sleepover, while Chrissy and Waverly made use of the bedroom.

Instead…

The small tent was full of sleeping bags and kids with Nicole and Wynonna taking the outer sleeping positions while the little ones lay between them. Waverly had managed to finagle the prime sleeping position next to Nicole… At least he assumed it was Waverly as all he could see was a mop of hair and the ears of her stuffed bunny poking out of the top of the sleeping bag.

Nicole’s body stirred. Her head lifted, sleepy eyes rimmed with a burgeoning flame that flickered a warning in the darkness until she saw him and the flame died down.

“Pa?”

Randy smiled at the soft, sleep-roughened tone of her voice. “It’s okay, sweetie,” he whispered quietly so as not to disturb the others. “Just checking everything is okay out here. We’re turning in soon. Door will be open if you need anything at all, okay?”

“M’kay.”

“Sleep tight, Nicole.”

“Night, dad. Love you.”

“Love you too kid.” He drew the zipper closed again, the soft, rasping click of the teeth catching sounded loud to his own ears but nothing stirred inside the tent as Nicole’s snores joined the others.

**********

Bobo watched, his eyes fixed upon the thin fabric of the tent as Deputy Nedley made his way back to his house where his wife waited. Lights turned on and off inside the house, marking the progress of the couple as they went about their routine and finally settled down for the night.

Bobo didn’t move, not even when a mouse scurried across his hand, mistaking his stillness to mean he was part of the collection of garden furniture and tools stored in the shed he was in.

The seven were growing restless. And as they did, murmurs of disquiet spreading through the Revenants like cancer. And, more and more, Bobo was hearing the names of the little ones mentioned along with Nedley’s brat and the strange things that seemed to happen around her. How she had appeared after the fire in the woods. A whisper about the barn fire. Even the strange occurrence of Bunny Loblaw’s Sunday best purse spontaneously combusting.

The unrest was growing, reaching a point where every attempt to quite them only made them spread more and turned even the most loyal of his kind against him as fears of the old prophecy took hold and fed their fear and hatred.

So, Bobo watched the tent and the land. Keeping the angel he had sworn to protect so long ago before he had died within his sight… Had that been the first or third time he had died? Time spent in hell had a way of messing with memories but he knew the name of his angel like he knew the perfect chords of music that strummed across his mind and soul when he heard it. He’d known it at the time of his death just as he’d known it when Michelle Earp had placed her within his arms.

“Waverly.”

**********

## September 1999

Chrissy’s breath fogging the glass display her hands were pressed against as she stared with wide, hopeful eyes at the vast, bewildering display of doughnuts.

“Have you decided which one you want, pumpkin?”

“All of them!”

Randy tried to hide his grin from the eagle-eyes of his wife but they shot to him from where she was kneeling at Chrissy’s side. Shrugging, he turned his attention to Nicole whose gaze was fixed with laser-like intensity upon only one section of the display. Striding across the filed floor of Purgatory’s finest, and only, doughnut shop, he touched her shoulder to get her attention.

“You picked out what you want, Nicole?”

“Not for me,” looking away from the doughnuts, she looked up at her dad. “I want to get some for Waves. It’s her birthday today and they’re her favourite. I’ve got some allowance left…”

“Put that away,” Randy ordered gently as she started rummaging in her pockets. “Pick out what you want for you—” he interrupted her as her lips parted to protest what she thought was his denial. “And for Waverly.” He smiled and signalled they were ready to order as Nicole beamed with happiness.

**********

Nicole carefully hid the box of doughnuts behind her back as she walked across the grass to where Waverly was sitting on a red and white checkered picnic blanket with her aunt Gus. Even though her back was towards her, Nicole could almost feel the waves of sadness flowing off her. She glanced back over her shoulder and caught her mom and dad’s smiles and urgings to keep going. They were there for her and for Waverly too.

“Good day, Mrs Gibson. Waverly.”

“Nicole!”

Holding the precious box out of harm's way, Nicole returned Waverly’s enthusiastic hug as best as she could.

“I’ll leave you two alone for a moment.” Winking, Gus made her way over to talk to Emily and Randy. Unfortunately, Chrissy was there too which meant she would have to hold her tongue about how she felt about Ward, bastard waste of space that he was, for taking Willa and Wynonna away for the weekend and leaving Waverly alone on her birthday.

Placing the box down on the blanket between them, Nicole pushed it across the fabric towards Waverly. She held a smile captive between her teeth as she saw Waverly’s nose twitching like a bloodhound on the scent.

Given Waverly’s fondness for them, Nicole had expected Waverly to fall on the box but she sat there with a look of wonder on her face, her fingers twitching like she didn’t dare move no matter how much she wanted to. So, Nicole lifted the lid for her, revealing the treasure neatly arranged upon a plate for her by her mom.

“That’s— they—?”

“All for you. Happy birthday, Waverly.”

“You know my birthday?”

“Of course.”

Lifting the plate out of the box, Nicole placed it down and, after a quick look around, pulled a couple of birthday candles out of her pocket and poked them into the top doughnut. Pinching the wicks between a thumb and finger, she lit them with a small spark of the powers that allowed her to form and control fire.

The risk she was taking was worth it to see the sheer joy in Waverly’s eyes and to hear her laugh and clap her hands in delight.

Nicole didn’t know what Waverly wished for as she closed her eyes and blew out the tiny flickering flames of the candles but, the look on her face as she opened her eyes and saw Chrissy barrelling towards her with a brightly wrapped gift for her followed by their mom and dad, as well as her aunt and uncle all laden down with parcels of their own, made Nicole believe that wishes could come true.

**********

“Damn fool!” Bobo gritted out through clenched teeth, his anger warring with the fear he felt at the girl’s careless use of her power. He found it hard to hold on to the anger though when Waverly laughed with the joy she only seemed to find with the foolish little dragon and the Nedley family.

“Fuck! Did you see that Bobo!? Wait until the others hear about—”

The fires of hell burned through Bobo, licking at what was left of his soul as he caught Carl around the throat with one hand and slammed him back against the thick trunk of the nearest tree. He pressed harder, crushing the man’s throat and grinding his spine against the tree. Reflected in Carl’s eyes, he saw his own burning with all the pain and suffering of hell.

“You saw nothing, Carl!” he snapped in Carl’s face. “Nothing! She’s just a little brat playing with trick candles!”

“But—”

“But nothing, Carl! If I hear of one word reaching the ears of the others I will cut out your tongue and feed you to Dimitri. See how long it takes you to recover from being chewed up and shit out of that hillbilly cannibals ass!”

Bobo gave one last squeeze of the throat nestled within his hand, drawing blood as he dug his nails in and slammed the back of Carl’s head against the tree. He watched as Carl staggered away, his pitiful choking gasps for air being drowned out by the laughter coming from the park.

Carl wouldn’t say anything, he was fairly certain of that. But, their time of fun and laughter was running out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN - The revenant mentioned at the end, Dimitri, is the one that kidnapped Waverly in 3x02. The character had no name as far as I know but Dimitri is the actor's name. I almost chose Father Malick from 1x04 as a threat but even though it is a brief mention, I wanted a revenant that is isolated and scared of Bulshar too for reasons that might become clear eventually ;)
> 
> AN2 - I just want to say thank you for any and all comments and also to apologise for not answering any. Each one is loved and appreciated but words outside of my stories are hard for me to get out (and the ones in the stories have been difficult enough).


	8. Chapter 8

## Winter 1999

“So, what do you think about—?" Nicole stopped dead in her tracks. "Wynonna?”

Head cocking from side to side, her eyes darting around a landscape rendered eerie and monochrome by the snow covering every inch even beneath the towering pines and poplars that surrounded her, Nicole looked and listened for the slightest hint of her friend’s whereabouts.

“What the heck?”

One second she had been trudging through the thick snow at her side and the next she had vanished.

Nicole turned on the spot. The snow crunched and creaked beneath her feet, the frigid cold of it seeping up through the soles of her boots and into her bones but, no matter where her eyes fell, there was no Wynonna to break the blanket of silence.

Until…

Suddenly there was too much Wynonna appearing as stealthily as she had vanished to let out a whoop closer than she could ever have expected that had Nicole’s eyes flying wide and entire body going stiff in shock.

And then, everything went white and cold as Wynonna shoved her in the side hard enough that Nicole was sent stumbling, her arms windmilling as she tried and failed miserably to right herself before she toppled backwards into a deep pile of snow.

Through the snow muffling her ears and billowing down over her face to melt and drip where snow had no right to be going, Nicole could hear Wynonna’s peals of laughter rising through the trees to disturb the few birds hiding out in the branches above.

“You—” Nicole gasped out, her teeth clenching to hold back their chattering as more snow fell on her upturned face as she tried to extract herself from the snow. It would be easy, temptingly so, to just melt the snow she was lying in but even Wynonna would probably notice that. Instead, Nicole settled for trying to hook Wynonna’s legs with her foot but as nimble as a cat instead of the braying donkey she was imitating, her friend hopped over her swinging limb without even taking a break in her laughter.

“How do you do that?” Nicole grumbled as she tried to get out of the snow without any more of it sliding down the back of her neck.

“Do what?”

“Well, you’re… you,” she waved a hand to encompass the disaster that was Wynonna almost toppling over from laughing too hard. “And then you get all—”

“Ninja?” Wynonna grinned proudly.

“Nope, more sneaky squirrel,” Nicole rolled her eyes, her hands working out of sight amongst the snow around her.

“Hey,” Wynonna kicked a billowing plume of snow at Nicole’s grinning face. “Hmm, I could totally rock a tail though,” she mused, spinning and sliding on the spot as she looked over her shoulder and tried to imagine how cool a tail would be.

“You look like that stray that Cryderman is always complainin’ about to Pa doin’ that.”

Wynonna screeched to a halt, her glorious imaginings of a bushy tail that was more like a sleek wolf or fox than squirrel were sent crashing at the thought. “That old thing has fleas… Hey!” She spun back around at the insult right into a perfectly aimed snowball that exploded in a shower of icy white against her face.

Scooping up handfuls of snow, she hastily formed a snowball in her hands as she raced through the trees that lay beyond the border of Earp land after the glimpses of Nicole ridiculous red hair sticking out wildly from beneath her PSD-blue chunky knit, woollen hat, and the laughter trailing behind her like a ribbon of joy that she followed like a siren song.

She loved their time together, even if Nicole did insist on including Waverly as often as possible. Even then, she didn’t mind as much as she pretended to. In fact, it always made her feel warm inside when they were all together and out from under the dark weight of being an Earp that lingered around the homestead and clung like an evil, darkening spectre to daddy and Willa.

Nicole was different from what Wynonna was used to. She was quiet and thoughtful. Calm and steady in a way that made Wynonna a little bit jealous, and want to ruffle Nicole’s feathers as often as she could to see the hints of fire she just knew lay beneath all that calm. And, right then, her weapons of choice were the snowballs crafted by her hands and the ninja, not sneaky squirrel… Ninja! skills her mama had taught her to help her to survive against the horrors that lurked around Purgatory as well as those in her home when daddy had been drinking.

With her freezing cold weapon in hand, she stepped lightly, sneaking up on Nicole’s unsuspecting back as her friend peered around the wide trunk of a snow-encrusted tree looking in the wrong direction for her.

“Ha-ha!” With a wide grin splitting her face, Wynonna roared in triumph and jumped out of hiding with her arm raised ready to let fly with cold fury.

_“Willa! Willa, please, don’t!”_

The snowball dropped forgotten from her hand, becoming lost in an instant amongst the deep snow on the ground as Waverly’s desperate, tear-filled voice carried across the eerily quiet, winter landscape and found them amongst the trees.

Her eyes met Nicole’s. Blue and brown meeting in understanding and fierce determination. As one, their feet dug into the snow, finding purchase on the frozen ground beneath. Their determination to protect Waverly brushed aside the memory of the licks of fire Wynonna had seen burning in Nicole’s gaze…

Almost.

**********

“Willa!” Waverly’s lip trembled, her eyes overflowing with tears as she chased after her big sister and Mr Hopkins who was trapped within her cruel grasp. She staggered and slipped in the snow, crashing painfully to her knees against a rock buried beneath the cold white blanket.

“You are so pathetic,” Willa hissed in contempt, barely sparing a glance or thought at Waverly’s cry of pain.

“Willa, please give ‘im back!”

“Why did you have to come into our lives, huh? Everything was better until you came along,” she continued, making her way determinedly through the thick snow, leading Waverly further off their land. “Mama was around. Pa wasn’t angry all the time. And then you came along and ruined _everything_! Mama left because of you! Pa barely has time to train me anymore because he’s so busy cleaning up after a snot-nosed brat like _you_! Even Wynonna has changed!”

Willa spun around angrily as she came to the edge of the vast lake. Waverly stopped before her, her eyes fixed upon the toy she usually pathetically clung to day and night. “They even gave you the pretty name,” she snarled lowly.

Lifting her arm, she drew Waverly’s pathetic, pleading eyes upwards using the toy. “You want this?”

“Please, Willa. Please give him—”

“You are so pathetic. Snivveling over a toy! You’ll never know what it’s like to be the heir.”

“Please—”

“You want it? Go get it!” Spinning, Willa threw the stuffed toy across the ice to land the other side of the ice she had carefully weakened with boiling water and a hammer.

“Willa! Willa, please, don’t!”

Willa turned and walked away, retracing her steps back towards the protection of the homestead as Waverly rushed out onto the ice. With each step, her heart grew lighter and lighter, her smile wider until it finally soared free at the sound of the ice cracking and Waverly’s scream cutting off as she plunged threw and vanished into the icy depths of the lake.

The cold would take her quickly and, if her body was ever found in the spring thaw, everyone would believe it was an accident or that a revenant had lured her onto the ice and no one would ever suspect the truth.

**********

_Waverly!_

_Waverly!_

** _Waverly!_ **

The dragon within Nicole ached to burn down everything in her path and take flight to get to Waverly as fast as she could but, there was no time and no room to change!

So she ran.

Her heart pounded against her ribs, the frantic beat matching the pumping of her arms and legs and the rush of blood sounding like the beating of a drum in her ears that screamed the name of her friend as she pushed herself harder and harder, running for all she was worth through the ache building in her limbs and the burning in her lungs.

Wynonna raced at her side, a blur of motion matching her stride for stride as they whipping through the trees and bushes that grabbed and tore at their clothing and skin and threatened at every step to trip them up and hold them back.

Through the thinning trees, Nicole could make out a wide expanse of emptiness where she knew water lay blanketed from view beneath a layer of thick ice covered in snow that blew and shifted in the careless breeze that whipped across its surface.

Her pounding heart nearly froze in horror as she made out Waverly walking upon it. She was so far away, too far away as she seemed to freeze in place and looked down.

The breeze shifted once more, carrying with it the sound of cracking and creaking as the ice splintered in a spiders web around Waverly, teasing them with how close they could be, should be, if only they could run fast enough to beat the ice breaking to swallow Waverly and her scream.

“No… No… No!!”

Nicole plunged onwards down the steep bank that lay between her and the lake, her body crashing painfully off everything in her way.

“Waves!”

Her feet skidded and slipped on the ice but she pushed on towards where she had last seen Waverly.

To where there was another figure running onto the ice, throwing themselves to their knees and coming to a sliding halt. He scrambled and scraped at the ice and snow and started pounding his fists against it where the cold had already sealed up the hole Waverly had fallen through. The thud of flesh and bone meeting unyielding ice rang out sickeningly.

As she neared, Nicole realised it was the strange man from the hospital, Bobo.

There was a dark, reddish-brown stain spreading across the snow and ice from where his fists had struck over and over and split apart from the force of his blows. With a look of desperation and panic in his cold eyes, he lifted a bloodied hand and grabbed at her, his fingers tangling in her scarf and coat like talons as he dragged her closer until she could feel the heat of his breath on her face and see the promise of hell in his eyes.

“Let her go!” Wynonna pounded at his wrists and hands but he pushed her away with ease and sent her stumbling and sliding back across the ice on her butt. Tears of helplessness stung her eyes and flowed down over her cheeks as she looked on at her friend ensnared in the grasp of a revenant.

“Melt it!”

“Wh-what?” Nicole blinked at him in confusion.

“Melt the damn ice!” Bobo snarled. “The ice is sealed again and I can’t get through to help my angel. Now, melt the ice!” he gave her a little shake for emphasis. “Do it! She’s dead if you don’t!”

“Nicole?”

“Stay out of this, Earp!” Bobo pointed a finger at her, sending blood from his split knuckles dripping to the ice. “Do it!” he ordered sharply. “Quickly, before she is out of reach!”

Dropping to her knees, Nicole stripped off her mittens and pressed her hands flat to the ice. Building slowly, she built heat within herself and pulled what little heat there was from the air. Bobo and Wynonna’s breaths thickened as the temperature dropped even more and caused ice to form on their lashes and brows, and Bobo’s beard until it turned a patch of his whiskers completely white.

“Easy,” Bobo gritted out, his teeth clacking together sharply against the fridged cold biting through his skin and digging into his bones. “Back up, kid!” he ordered sharply as Wynonna started to edge closer to where the ice was turning clear where Nicole was pouring heat from herself and the air to slowly melt it.

“How? What are you?”

Nicole closed her eyes, her heart breaking at the unease in Wynonna’s voice. Waverly needed her though. She focused on that, blinking past the hot tears filling her eyes and directing more heat to where Bobo pointed.

Through the spreading window of clear, thinning ice, she saw a shadow slightly darker than the brackish water.

“Waverly!”

Mr Hopkins was clutched to her chest.

But…

She was sinking.

Passing beyond their reach!

“More!”

Bobo barely waited for Nicole to put a little more heat into the ice before he threw himself headfirst through the ice, plunging into an icy hell until he felt his belt snagging on the edge of the hole. He reached out for his angel, his fingers growing stiff and curling into claws in pain.

A scream of agony and desperation burst from his lungs, bubbles of air rising to fill his darkening vision. But finally… Finally! He felt something brush against fingers nearly dead from the cold and grabbed on as tightly as he could just as something started hauling him back up through the water by his boots and belt and Waverly with him.

He sucked in a ragged breath as soon as his head broke water and choked on the desperate lungful as it burned his lungs with cold fury. Even as it bent him over, he held on to Waverly, his limbs locking tight in the cold around the precious cargo he held close to his chest. He was barely even aware of the two girls yanked them back from the edge of the hole towards thicker ice with a fierce determination and didn’t stop until they were off it altogether.

His mind and body only unlocked, recoiling back to awareness as Wynonna started screaming like a banshee for her Pa. Ward was a weak, sorry excuse for a man, easily controlled by anyone stronger than him. But… at the slightest sign of weakness, he was like a cornered snake striking and Bobo had no desire to be found so close to Earp land. Not in the state he was. If that happened he would be looking down the barrel of Peacemaker once more or pushed back through the hole in the ice. Probably with his angel along with him as he did not doubt that Ward would take such an opportunity given half a chance, especially if it would keep the daughter he did favour, safe.

“Waverly?”

Nicole didn’t feel the cold from the snow as she sank to her knees beside Bobo. Her one concern, her only concern, was the tiny bundle clasped against him.

With trembling fingers, she reached out to brush a frozen tangle of hair away from a pale cheek. Her skin was cold, so cold and unyielding, beneath her searching fingers that Nicole’s breath caught in her throat in a sob.

“Waves?”

Bobo forced unwilling limbs to move and clawed his way to his knees. The Earp girl thankfully stopped screaming as he did so, her blue eyes locking on him before falling to Waverly. It was to Nicole he looked though.

“Sh-she needs— warmth,” he gritted out past chattering teeth. “G-gently,” he warned as she reached out.

Biting her lip, Nicole nodded and placed a cautious hand on Waverly, cupping a cold cheek in the warmth radiating from her palm. She closed her eyes to focus, concentrating on each breath. In and out. In and out. Releasing a steady, gentle pulse of warmth enough to cover Waverly and Bobo.

Bobo looked at her in awe and no small amount of fear as he felt and finally understood the power held within her.

He had known but, knowing and feeling were two different things and it was definitely an awakening of the mind to realise that right there before him in the body of a child, was a being that could burn them all and offer them a death that would take more permanently than one at the end of Wyatt Earp’s cursed gun.

He looked around at the three girls. Heir in waiting, Angel, and Dragon. Three parts of a prophesy as old as time. One that contained their salvation or destruction depending on how it was read or remembered.

The darkest part of his hell-forged soul urged him to destroy them before it was too late! But, the man he had once been burst upwards through the darkness, following the light of his angel’s pulse as it fluttered and grew steadily beneath his fingers. Her lashes fluttered as they rose from where they lay above cheeks rosy with life to reveal the gentle hazel of her eyes as she blinked up at him and looked around in confusion for a moment before they fluttered shut again.

“Waverly! Waverly!” Wynonna reached out for her sister as her head rolled against her shoulders but the revenant’s hand grasped her wrist painfully and used it to pull himself to his feet.

“Run home, little Earp. Get your Pa to call an ambulance for her.”

Wynonna shook her head. “I can’t. Pa ain’t home.”

“You know how to make a call, right?”

“I do but Pa got mad a somethin’ and smashed the phone las’ week.”

“Of course he did,” Bobo growled, silently cursing Ward for the foul-tempered fool that he was. “You,” he jerked his attention around to Nicole. “You need to go get your Pa as fast as you can. Do you understand me?”

“I—”

“As. Fast. As. You. Can! Fly! Do whatever you have to. Just get him to meet us at the homestead.”

Nicole stepped slowly back, a feeling of finality coming over her with every step as she looked into Wynonna’s confused, blue eyes and let her dragon out. Wynonna fell back a step, stumbling in Bobo’s firm grasp but Nicole took to the air before she could see fear or hatred within her gaze and flew away.

The last time she had changed without her dad around to keep an eye out for her, it had been to save Waverly from the fire. It had been worth the risk, just as it was then. Even if it might cost her Wynonna’s friendship.

‘Cause, who could be friends with something that books always called a monster?

**********

“Earp! Wynonna!”

“Get off ‘a me!”

“Do you want your sister to live or not?”

“Of— of course, I do,” Wynonna frowned up at the strange looking revenant, her chin jutting out belligerently.

“Then help me get her back to the homestead.” He took a step along the path forged in the snow by Willa and Waverly, his body so cold that his muscles and joints almost refused to bend and move.

“You can’t cross the line onto our land,” Wynonna called out as she jogged in his wake to catch up to him and her sister.

“I know that, girl. I can get my angel close enough for your little friend’s pa to help though, hmm?”

“Why do you call her that?” Wynonna frowned.

“She is your friend, is she not?”

“I _meant_ Waverly. Why do you call her your angel?”

“Hmm,” he hummed softly, not at all surprised that neither Ward or Michelle had told them about what had happened on the day of Waverly’s birth. “I helped your Mama out when Waverly was born,” he looked down at the bundle in his arms, remembering the feel of her tiny, delicate, newborn body within them on that fateful day. “I promised her I would protect her… My angel.”

There was more to that tale. There always was. But, her Mama’s infidelity with a heavenly being was a story best left for another day and told well away from any prying revenant ears that would seek to harm Waverly because of it.

Bobo glanced over his shoulder at the Earp girl trudging determinedly in his wake. Unlike Willa, there was still an innocence about her that remained simply because she wasn’t next in line to shoulder the curse that bound Earps and revenants alike to the Ghost River Triangle.

**********

The heavenly scent of the greasy burger had Randy damn near drooling down the front of his uniform shirt as he pulled it out from its bag and started carefully, reverently, unwrapping it.

If Emily knew he was ditching the salad she had made for processed meat again, heart attack in a bun, as she liked to call it, she would probably make him sleep on the couch for a week. But… Emily wasn’t there to see him. No one was as he had carefully chosen his sinning spot and there was no one to witness his grease-soaked sin apart from a crow perched upon the faded, and frankly creepy assed Welcome to Purgatory sign that lay seven miles outside of the town.

The crow took flight with a loud, startled ‘CAW!’ that made Randy startle but that was nothing compared to the sudden appearance of his daughter landing with a thud in all her dragon glory right beside his window.

With what he was ashamed to say was a high-pitched, girly scream, his fists clenched on his burger, sending the contents flying all around the interior of his cruiser and, of course, the greasiest, ketchup slathered bits of it had to spill out over his khakis.

“Nicole! What in the world—”

“Dad! It’s Waverly! Please! You have to help!”

The sheer panic in her voice had Randy snapping to attention, all thoughts of admonishing her for flying so close to town leaving him. “Where?”

“The homestead.”

“Okay, get in the car, honey.” As she rushed around the front of the car, changing from one step to the next, Randy plotted out the fastest way to get to the homestead. “You talk, I’ll drive,” he ordered as he put the cruiser in gear and pressed down heavily on the gas.

**********

Bobo could feel the power of the Ammolite that made up the bedrock under the Earp land itching at his mind and whipping at his skin in warning, pushing him away as they neared the fence that marked the border. Too close and he would be physically thrown aside by it like a child carelessly tossing aside an unwanted toy.

Holding Waverly closer, he clenched his teeth tightly with an audible click and pushed onwards. He needed to get as close as he could so that the Deputy could get to them even if the cursed land set him on fire for trying.

As determined as he was, finally he was forced to his knees, unable to endure the pain any longer.

In the distance, he could see the homestead and the flash of blue and red lights coming along the road.

“Earp!” He snagged her thin arm before she could move away and hauled her closer. “Listen to me,” he begged. “You can’t tell your Pa or anyone else that I was here,” he silenced her with a look before she could speak. “Not even Waverly. Keep it secret, Wynonna. If word of this gets out, I will be killed for it and then I won’t be able to protect her ever again.”

“But—” Wynonna frowned in confusion, not understanding why he wouldn’t want anyone to know he had done something good.

“No one, Wynonna. _You_ found her. _You_ got her to safety. Be her protector too.”

“I— okay.”

“One more secret to keep,” he pointed to where Deputy Nedley and Nicole were running towards them. “You can’t say anything about what you saw her do. You know what your Pa does with that gun of his to things like her.”

Wynonna swallowed past the lump forming in her throat and blinked through her tears. This was a secret she knew she could keep for no matter what she had seen, Nicole had always been her friend.

She always would be.

**********

Bobo hadn’t expected to see the hospital again so soon and he would be more than willing to die a million times over at the end of Peacemaker than to see his angel lying in a hospital bed again. But, there he was, and so was Waverly. Her face pale against the thin pillow, her body tiny and overshadowed by the machines positioned around the bed like vultures waiting for her to weaken and need them.

With a quiet step, he moved to stand by Deputy Nedley’s side where he was standing with his good wife watching his daughters and Wynonna at Waverly’s bedside

“Are you ready to listen to me now, Deputy?”

Emily looked at the strange-looking man she had seen lurking around town as she felt Randy grow stiff before releasing it all with a resigned sigh. “Randy?”

“It’s okay, Em.” Randy kissed her softly on the cheek and squeezed her shoulder gently beneath a work-roughened hand. “You stay with the girls and I’ll be right back.”

“You know of the curse upon us,” Bobo stated rather than asked as they walked slowly together, shoulder to shoulder down the silent, sterile hospital corridor.

Randy spared him a glance. Usually, he would have dodged the hell out of a question like that. Lord knows he’d had to do that more than he wanted to admit when some of their newer citizens called about werewolves eating their dogs, ‘just coyotes, ma’am’ or seeing people with strange glowing eyes, ‘just a trick of the light, sir’. But this was Bobo, a demon, or revenant as the Earps called them. Dodging his truth seemed redundant.

“I know as much as anyone here does when they’re not admiring the view of the Rockies and pretending there aren’t things that go bump in the night living right next door to them. I know that the revenants are the seventy-seven outlaws killed by Wyatt Earp—”

“Not all of us.”

“What?”

Bobo waited until they had passed a harried-looking nurse before continuing. “Not all of us were outlaws.”

“Really? We were always told—”

“I rode _with_ Wyatt.” _Rode, loved from afar, same difference. _“Back when I was known by a different name, Robert Svane. Wyatt was called here to Purgatory because of the Sheriff, Bulshar, who ran the town. Bad, bad man.” He frowned as past and present seemed to slide together, erasing the edges of reality and blurring them with the fires of hell that hissed and struck at him like a rattler.

“I’d ridden to see his old _friend_, Doc Holliday,” he snorted at the memory of just how ‘friendly’ the two men had been on the trail once they were under cover of the night and stars above… and how jealous he had been of both of them.

“I tried to enlist Doc’s aide for the fight ahead so I didn’t see what had happened. I just know that everything had gone all to hell by the time I got back. Wyatt had killed the Sheriff’s sons and they were out for his blood. Wyatt shot the bastard right through me,” his fingers ghosted over the old wound etched in his body and soul.

“When I died from my wounds I joined the ranks of the revenants just as anyone else caught in the crossfire.”

“I’m sorry you got caught up in that.”

“Yeah, well. Immortality as its perks as long as you can keep ahead of the heirs and that damned gun. Dying once was bad. After that… Well, you never come back the same after a stay in hell.”

“What does this have to do with Nicole?”

“Ah, yes. Your _daughter_.” He stroked his fingers over the new white patch in his beard. “There are two ways the Earp curse ends, either the Earp line dies or all the revenants are sent back to hell before their death. But… there is more than one curse in the Triangle. There’s the original one, Bulshar himself. Locked away, hidden by Wyatt himself before he left to go find his lover.”

“And?” Randy prompted as Bobo started to mutter beneath his breath and slapped at his forehead like he was trying to knock something loose.

“Bulshar. Bulshar is evil like this world has never seen, Nedley. If he gets out everything is over. Everything! Right now, he is trapped. Locked away in whatever dark corner Wyatt found for him. Wyatt never told anyone where that was but, shhh. Hasn’t stopped his followers from hoping and looking though, searching for a way to set him free. And those sons of bitches, they ain’t held within the boundaries of the Triangle like we are… Oh no. So they look and search. Look and search.”

“For what?” Randy asked even though he had a feeling he knew.

“The final piece to the puzzle… or so they think. Your little pet is a key to his release. Which is why those fools had her up in the Barrens. They thought that if they sacrificed her in Bulshar’s name, they would set him free! Only… she is only one of three keys needed. But…”

“But?”

“If the keys are apart,” he spread his arms wide apart for emphasis.

“He can’t be released.”

“Exactly!” Bobo nodded. “You need to get that girl out of here. The revenants… Now we don’t want Bulshar released any more than any sane person would but that won’t keep her safe. She’s the last of her kind and if she’s dead there is no more threat.”

“And the other keys?”

“Most only know of the two; dragon and heir but, there is a third… an angel.”

“Waverly?” Randy whispered, realising that Bobo’s strange nickname was more than it seemed.

“The Earps, they are bound to this land, even if they leave the Triangle they find their way back. They always do. Ward is weak though, he won’t lift his hand or gun against us so his girls are safe. Waverly is Earp only in name and I can protect her from the others. But, Nicole… I think the chances of her being secret are pretty slim now.”

“You son of a bitch!” Randy cursed as Bobo flapped his arms up and down like wings.

“I had to! My angel would have died without her actions! Twice now she has saved Waverly from her own family. Now I’m saving her. Leave. Take your family and get out of the Triangle.”

Following the direction of Bobo’s last emphatic gesture before slipping away, Randy realised that their talk has taken them on a full loop of the wards and he was back where they’d started.

Twisting the handle on the door, he pushed it open, releasing the sounds of childish giggles coming from the bed where Waverly was awake and leaning back against the pillows with a smile on her face, a newly dried Mr Hopkins in her arms, and, as always, one of Nicole’s hats perched on her head.

He moved closer to his wife, taking the hand she offered in greeting. She looked at him questioningly but held back with only the smallest of frowns as he shook his head and mouthed ‘later’. Right then he wanted, needed, to get his fill of what they were about to lose. Because, while Bobo might have started out riding with Wyatt Earp, he was without question a tricky bastard now.

But…

Randy believed his warnings and knew he couldn’t risk his family.

They had to leave Purgatory and everyone they knew and loved and never look back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN - Sorry that chapter took so long. 2020 has got me in a creative slump and suffering from a never-ending string of headaches and migraines at the moment.


	9. Chapter 9

## 5th Sept 2000

From his position on the edge of the Earp land, his body straining against the barrier created by the natural protection lying beneath the land, Bobo kept a careful eye on the darkened windows of the homestead as well as the tiny figure of Waverly Earp as she knelt on the ground and scratched and scrambled at the dirt in the small fenced off area begrudgingly set aside as a cemetery for all the small critters the Earp children had cared for over the years.

The moon was almost full that night, shining brightly in the sky to thankfully negate the need for further illumination that would have given away their position. Bobo didn’t fear for himself, he knew intimately what hell was like and he didn’t fear it as much as he did what would happen to Waverly if they were found.

“The witching hour,” he muttered to the sky and the shadow of the owl that swooped above their heads on its way back to the trees. He had no need of a watch to now it was true, he could feel it on an almost instinctual level, a shift in the air, a quickening that had every hair on his body rising sharply to attention. “The perfect time to make a hole for our friend, Waverly.”

Waverly stopped digging for a moment and gazed down and the worn sackcloth covered item at her side before gazing over at her friend. “Will this really make them happy?”

Bobo’s jaw clenched and his chest tightened as the moonlight highlighted the faded, yellowing bruise on his angel’s jaw. Smiling tightly, he gestured for Waverly to finish burying the talisman.

As soon as the soil covered it, the pressure keeping him from the Earp land faded away and he stepped over the line onto their land for the first time since the curse had been placed upon them all.

Stopping in front of her, he crouched down before her. She looked up at him with hope and innocence in her hazel eyes as he gently brushed a trembling thumb over her bruised jaw.

Bobo wasn’t sure why he, a creature forged in the burning pits of hell, was allowed to touch an angel, an actual honest to god angel, like Waverly Earp without bursting into flames, but he was thankful for it, and the witch that had made the talisman for him, as he could now protect her from her own family.

“This will guarantee you all get what you deserve.” Especially Ward! There would be no more hiding on his land for that bastard now if he so much as laid a hard look on the child ever again!

Smiling in pure joy, he swept Waverly off the ground as he stood up and spun her around and around as she giggled and squealed.

“It’s my angel’s birthday soon! What are you hoping to get?”

“I dunno,” Waverly sighed deeply, her chin dropping to her chest. It felt like a lifetime ago but she could still remember her last birthday and how she had spent in with Nicole. “I jus’ want Nicole.”

The deep sadness in Waverly’s tiny voice with like a knife to Bobo’s heart knowing he was the cause of it for forcing the Deputy to leave and take the young dragon with him. It was for the best. The only way for it to end without the death of the dragon. But, neither Waverly nor Wynonna understand why their friend was gone though he felt that Wynonna somehow knew it was down to the curse hanging over all their heads.

“I know, my angel. I know I am not Nicole… my hair is the wrong colour,” he teased her gently. “But how about old Bobo gets you a cake for your birthday?”

“Chocolate?” Waverly perked up excitedly.

“Anything my angel wants,” he agreed with the kind of soft laugh only his angel could pull from his hellworn soul. “If there’s anything else you want, you just let Bobo know, ‘kay?”

“’kay.”

“We’d best get you back home to your bed now. And you remember, this is—”

“Our secret,” Waverly finished, miming locking her lips tightly closed and throwing away an imaginary key.

“That’s my angel.”

Bobo watched as the little girl skipped away through the tall, moonlit grass and picked up the small shovel to hide in the barn before he left Earp land. The peak of the witching hour has passed but there was another prickle of sensation pulling the hair up on the back of his neck and sending a fissure of fear racing down his spine to set his brand burning through his clothes.

He looked around, his eyes filling with the fires of hell as they pierced the darkness and found ones burning like his own on the edge of a copse of trees. He couldn’t make out which of the many revenants it was and whoever it was, they took advantage of Waverly calling for him to vanish from sight in a blur of motion before he could follow.

He had so much to do. A deal to be struck with Ward to walk him across the line so he could escape the cursed land of the Ghost River Triangle and escape with his angel so they could both spread their wings and fly. But, he was running out of time.

“Bobo?”

“On my way, my angel.” Fixing a smile on his face so that Waverly couldn’t see his unease, Bobo took the tiny hand that slipped into his and followed his angel’s determined tug.

**********

## 7th Sept 2000

A broken sob filtered around the edge of the bedroom door, stilling Randy’s raised hand before it could make contact with the worn, white-painted wood. Pressing his palm flat to the surface, he raked the fingers of his other hand through his hair and rubbed at the back of his neck. His head dropped, his chin hitting his chest as his eyes closed tightly to hold back the sting of tears brought on by the pain of his daughter’s sorrow.

Drawing in a deep, shuddering breath, filling his lungs with air and courage, Randy dropped his hand, his calloused fingers skimming over the imperfections in the paint from the grain it covered and the marks left by the brush before finding the cold metal of the handle. His hand stilled just for a moment before tightening resolutely and pushing down on the handle. As the door swung quietly open on well-oiled hinges, Nicole curled further into herself on the bed, he shoulders stiffening as she pulled her knees up to her narrow chest.

Rather than speak, unsure that he could get anything past the lump in his throat if he tried, Randy simply walked across the room and sat quietly on the edge of the narrow bed and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“It’s all my fault.”

A frown creased Randy’s brow as he looked down, struggling to make sense of the words Nicole was snuffling and sobbing over and over into her pillow. “What in the world?” His heart cracking, he wrestled her up off the mattress, pillow and all, onto his lap. Holding her just as close and tight as he could, he rocked her gently through her tears and whispered soothing nonsense in an effort to calm her down.

“Hey, come on now. There’s no need for all those tears,” he swiped at them ineffectively, his efforts failing to stem the tide that fell from mismatched eyes that glistened like jewels and soaked into his shirt as she wrapped her fingers around the collar of it. “You get them out if you need too. You have done nothing wrong though, you hear me, Nicole?”

“I’s my fault we ha’ ta leave.”

Randy covered Nicole’s hand with his own, stilling her restless back and forth motion over the fabric of his shirt where the badge of the Purgatory Sheriffs Department would have lain on his sleeve.

“You did the right thing, Nicole.”

“But— You and Ma had to leave your job and friends because of what I did—”

“You did the right thing,” he stated more clearly, cupping the point of her chin gently so she would meet his steady gaze.

“I miss my friends.”

“I’m sure they miss you too, Nicole. But, because you were so brave and followed your heart and did what was right even after we’d told you not to, Waverly is still alive to wear all those hats you gave her and hug that bunny too.”

“Mr Hopkins.”

Randy chuckled softly at the smile teasing Nicole’s lips that belied the exasperated roll of her eyes. “There’s my girl. Now, dry your tears and listen to me, okay? If we had stayed that bass—”

“Randy!”

Randy ducked his head and shared a smile with Nicole as his wife's reprimand reached him from god only knew where.

“That slightly unreliable man, Bobo—”

“That’s better!”

“Thank you, dear! Anyways. He told us that things could happen… What things doesn’t matter,” he interrupted Nicole before she could ask. “Point is, it would have been really, _really_ bad for us to stay—”

“Worse than what happened to my other parents?”

“Yes,” he finally admitted with a sigh. “You are our daughter, Nicole. Losing you is a risk we won’t ever take not for anything. I know you miss Wynonna and Waverly but you will make new friends.”

“But, your job—”

“I’ll get a new job. Got an interview later today as it happens.”

“Does it come with a badge?”

“If I get it, yes.”

“And a uniform?”

“Not for the position I would be in. Damn shame if you ask me. I’ll miss those khakis.”

“They made your butt look big and showed up all the ketchup stains from those burgers you claimed you never had!”

“That was blood, woman!”

“Bull—”

“Emily!” He gasped in mock horror, winking at Nicole as she hid a giggle behind her hand.

“—Doody! Bull-doody!”

“Potty mouth,” he winked at Nicole. “Now, come on you, time for some breakfast.”

“Pa… could I phone Wynonna later?”

“Nicole—”

“Please! They never remember Waverly’s birthday! Just for a minute to remind her… please?”

Shaking his head ruefully, Randy gently brushed Nicole’s hair back from her forehead and tried to hold onto every ounce of strength and resolve under the weight of her biggest, best, pleading puppy eyes.

“I’ll think about it,” he finally relented. “You be good for your ma today though, you hear me? You do your chores when asked and help out with your sister and… then we’ll see.”

His smile at a job well done slipped a little as Randy made his way into the kitchen and came under his wife’s gaze. Not to be deterred, not too much at least, he pressed a lingering kiss to Emily’s cheek before manoeuvring around her to pour himself a glass of orange. A decision he regretted instantly as he took a sip and it hit his freshly brushed teeth.

“Do you think it’s a good idea?”

“To drink orange after brushing my teeth? Hell no. Lord above, why do I always forget how _bad_ that is,” he grumbled.

“Randy Nedley, that is not what I meant and you know it.” Emily gave him a slap of reproach on the shoulder and looked around him, making sure that their daughters were both out of earshot. “Promising our girl she can call Wynonna—?”

“I only said I would think about it,” he whined, rubbing his still stinging shoulder. “It’ll be one call and we know we can trust Shorty.”

“We should have just taken those poor mites with us.”

Randy bite firmly back on any exasperation her words caused. It didn’t matter how often they went through what had happened that night, it was over and done with but, sometimes… sometimes one or both of them would feel the need to vent and they had quickly come to the agreement that when that happened, they would talk.

“We should have—”

“You know we couldn’t, Em. Waverly needed medical help after that ‘accident’ and Ward was too busy puffing out his chest and for once in his life playing the role of doting father. We wouldn’t have gotten Waverly one step outside of her room let alone the hospital without him bringing down the Sheriff's Department on us. And even if we had made it to our car with them… you saw the revenants watching our every move. They knew something was going on but Bobo was holding them back. If we’d tried anything they would likely have attacked just for the hell of it.”

“I know. I do, I know.”

“Doesn’t stop the second-guessing what happened though,” he nodded in understanding. “I go through it often enough for both of us. Especially when Nicole gets so worked up about it. I wish we could have taken them with us. Ward is so shit at being a decent human being let alone a parent that at any other time he wouldn’t have even noticed they’d gone for weeks. To him, they were backups to be trained, not daughters else he would have gotten them away from the Ghost River Triangle years ago.”

Like they had once he’d gotten the stick out of his ass enough to listen to Bobo’s mad ramblings.

“And then there’s you insane, harebrained idea to go into the lion's den—”

“What? It’s just an interview.”

“With Black Badge,” Emily hissed. “You’ve heard the rumours about that place. You know what they would do to Nicole.”

“All the better to put a stop to them from the inside before they can do anything then,” he hissed quietly back, his ears trained on the positions of their girls by their footsteps upon the creaking floorboards. “I know it’s risky—”

“Risky?” Emily snorted through the prickle of tears born from fear and frustration.

“That is why I’m not going in there blindly.”

“It feels like you are.” Wrapping her arms around her waist, Emily turned her back on her fool of a husband but he didn’t let her get more than a pace away before his strong hands were turning her back around and right into his arms. She lay her head against his shoulder, breathing in the familiar scent of his soap and aftershave.

“Trust me, Em. I will keep you and the girls safe.”

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”

“The revenants… they can’t leave the Ghost River Triangle themselves but their reach goes further than anyone knows. Black Badge… when it comes down to it, they could be the only ones that can protect Nicole. The guy Shorty put me in touch with… well, Shorty has never steered us wrong before and if he trusts them, I do too.”

“Does he know what she is?”

“Nope. As far as anyone knows, she’s our adopted daughter.”

“I still think you’re a damned fool, Randy Nedley.”

“Em… you thought that way about me before I first asked you out,” he smiled fondly at the memory.

“All these years and I still haven’t changed my mind about you.”

“Neither have I about you… You’re just as pretty as you were back then.”

“Smooth-talking won’t get you out of trouble with me, Randy Nedley,” Emily blushed. “Just,” she lowered her voice to a whisper as she heard Nicole and Chrissy stomping their way towards the kitchen like a herd of baby elephants, “you take care, you hear me? Those kids need you… _I_ need you.”

“I love you too.”

**********

Raising his fist, Ward guided the brown paper bag covered bottle of cheap whiskey to his lips. He cursed, tossing the bottle down into the passenger footwell of his cruiser when instead of the burn of liquid he found himself sucking on nothing but fumes.

“Damn it!”

He fumbled for the door, his searching hand slipping and sliding down over the window and trim before finally finding the handle that gave and allowed a cold blast of Purgatory air to enter the heated, whiskey-soaked interior as he released his seatbelt and tumbled out.

The dirt of the homestead land was cold beneath his hands, clinging to the sweat on his palms.

“Daddy?”

Ward blinked into the light spilling out from the homestead across the land he knelt on. It was hard to make out through the glare and the haze of alcohol but he knew his daughter's voice. “Go back inside and get your sisters.”

“But—”

“Do as I say, Willa!”

Ward leaned back against the side of his cruiser as Willa stomped back inside and shouted for Wynonna and Waverly with a voice dripping with fury. He would make it up to her later, he always did. Right then though, there were things happening in Purgatory… a unrest amongst the revenants despite his ‘understanding’ with their leader, Bobo Del Rey.

Pushing himself up off the ground, he stumbled towards the homestead, his head swivelling drunkenly from side to side in an effort to look beyond the fence line that marked the nearest border of the Earp land. Through the darkness, he thought he made out the hellfire red of revenant eyes but…

It was safe there…

Bobo had promised him just that day when they had made their deal inside the walls of the barn.

No revenant could get onto the land…

Bobo had promised!

It was protected…

He had promised!

It was safe.

Safe?

Stumbling inside, he brushed past Wynonna and Waverly as they made their way downstairs with fists pawing sleepily at their eyes and jaws cracked wide as they yawned.

“Pa?”

“Go sit at the table, Wynonna. Take that— take Waverly with you. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes soon as I freshen off.”

“’kay, pa.” Holding out her hand, Wynonna took Waverly’s tiny hand in hers, squeezing it reassuringly as they edged past their pa to get to the dining table where Willa was already waiting. Pulling out a chair as far away from their sister as she could find, Wynonna told Waverly to sit and left her to colour on a stack of scrap paper while she went to get a couple of drinks for them. She hurried, rinsing out a couple of beakers as fast as she could so as not to leave Waverly alone with Willa. In the mood she was in right then, Wynonna wasn’t sure that even their dad being in the house would be enough to stop her from hurting Waverly if the mood struck her.

“Okay.” Feeling slightly more human for the cold water he had thrown into his face, Ward bypassed the half-empty liquor bottle sitting on top of the counter where he had left it just that morning and pulled out his chair at the head of the table. The Colt Buntline Special with its twelve-inch barrel clattered sharply against the wood, startling Wynonna and Waverly into wakefulness while Willa gazed at it like most kids probably looked at a puppy or a pony. “Gather close now. I need to explain a little family history. Willa already knows,” he looked at his eldest with pride. “Wynonna already knows a lot but I think Waverly is old enough to hear some of this now too.”

“She’s just a baby,” Willa protested, her lips twisting as she glanced at the brightly coloured stick figures in thick crayon Waverly was drawing. The thought of losing the knowledge that set her above Waverly whipped her into a fury that had her wanting to rip up her stupid, childish scribbling!

“Old enough to know, Willa.” Old enough to understand and maybe be of help if she knew the burden placed upon the true Earps. Old enough to be a distraction to the revenants who would try to hurt him and Willa. “My decision is final, Willa! Get my cleaning supplies.”

“Yes, pa.”

As he waited for Willa to return, Ward ordered his thoughts and tried not to look at Waverly. Willa was right, she was just a baby, a baby that wasn’t even his! Born from a sinful act! A bastard foisted upon his good name by his cheating bitch of a wife! The thought alone had bile rising in Ward’s throat.

“Here you go, pa.”

Ward unclenched his hand from around the pearl grip of the gun. The blood rushed back to white knuckles as he reached for a soft cloth and started to polish the weapon, falling into the soothing familiarity of the action.

“This here weapon is special. It’s called Peacemaker,” he stated almost dreamily, his thumb brushing across the smooth grip to the name scratched into the bottom. The barrel was silent, the only light coming from the reflection of the light over the table as it caught upon the polished barrel. It had been years since it had shone with purpose. “This belonged to Wyatt Earp, your great-great-grandpappy,” he smiled as Willa leaned closer to him, settling into the story she already knew by heart.

Waverly was showing less interest, her hands already busy scratching away at another figure on the paper. She looked up at the silence though, urged by a gentle poke from Wynonna and Ward found himself faced with a look so intense and intelligent for one so young that it startled him with how… otherworldly it was.

“They say that Wyatt took down seventy-seven outlaws with this gun,” he continued after a pause to compose himself.

“And now those outlaws are resurrecting as revenants, coming for us,” Willa added helpfully, eager to show off her knowledge as her pa paused for too long again.

“They won't rest until they gain freedom from their earthly prison.”

“You’ll stop them, daddy!” Waverly stated with childlike conviction, eager to forge a bond with him that had never been there before.

“You’ll get ‘em,” Wynonna added, deflecting Willa’s attention before it got too fixed upon Waves.

“Willa is the eldest, the next Earp heir, destined to inherit Wyatt’s abilities.”

“I won’t let them hurt anyone.” Willa avoided looking to Waverly, not wanting to include her in her promise.

“Good. Because the only thing that can put these demons down again is you.” Ward knew it wouldn’t be him. He was not like his great-grandfather, Wyatt Earp, famed lawman. He wasn’t as courageous as his grandfather, Josiah or even as ambitious as his dad, Edwin, the one year wonder, who in his one short year as the heir had almost managed to end it in his determination to spare him and had left him and his mom alone to pick up the pieces.

He was just Ward. And while he wasn’t going to end the curse, he was going to do what none of the other heirs since Wyatt had. He was going to live a full life before Willa or her children had to take over if what Bobo had planned didn’t pan out.

All being well, he could walk that crazy bastard and the others over the invisible line that marked out the boundary of the Ghost River Triangle that held them captive and be done with them.

**********

Bobo’s lungs burned as he ran through the trees as though hellhounds were snapping at his heels. His body bounced off rough trunks and branches and roots snagged at his clothes and feet but he refused to let anything stop him.

He had to get to the Earp Homestead!

He had to save his angel!

Save her from his mistake… the hubris that had led him to think that he was in control of anything. He should have taken better care and chased down the revenant spying on them.

But… Carl, that stupid, good for nothing idiot, had told Malcolm. Malcolm had told the rest of the seven. And now they were out for the heirs' blood.

_‘I hunger to hone my skills upon the streets of London once again. Why should we wait for this mythical lead when we can just end the Earps and this whole sordid affair with them tonight?’_

_‘Stay out of our way, Bobo or you will be taking one more trip down to hell after we’ve hung that useless bastard, Ward and his brats.’_

**********

“Daddy?”

Ward looked up at Willa’s urgent call and joined her at the window to see what had caught her attention. There was movement outside, vehicles driving through the lynch gates onto the land and a lone figure moving between the homestead and the barn as brazenly as if they owned the place.

Silence fell. An eerie calm that was broken by the slender, dark-clothed figure whistling an old fashioned tune. The moon glinted off the silver handle of a cane lifted and held aloft within their hand.

Engines roared and whined, filling the air with a deafening fury of sound that shook the old walls of the homestead while their headlights and spotlights mounted to the tops of their trucks burned like a thousand suns, making it all but impossible to make out what was happening just the other side of the glass.

“You said they can’t attack the house!”

Ward pulled Willa back from her exposed position by the window. “They figured out how to get around the bedrock!” Just like Bobo! That bastard must have told them how to do it!

“What’s happening?” Waverly tried to peer around to see what was happening but Wynonna held her securely, sheltering her within her arms.

“I got the gun!” Willa snatched Peacemaker off the table and rushed to hand it to her father where he was now standing across the room, peering out of a window. “There’s so many of them!”

“There’s seven of them!”

The window shattered at Willa’s side, showing her with splinters of glass that cut into her face and the exposed flesh of her arms. Peacemaker dropped from hands made limp by shock and pain. Hands grabbed her from behind in a harsh grip that hurt more than the glass had, pulling her off her feet and back through the ragged opening. Spikes of glass caught on her nightgown, ripping the thin fabric and tearing deep into the meat of her thighs as easily as a hot knife through butter.

“Willa!” Wynonna reached for her sister as she screamed in pain and fear as she was dragged from sight. Despite her desire to help her big sister, she never once let go of her main priority, her baby sister, Waverly.

“No!” Ward ran for the door, for once no thought for himself as he grabbed a shotgun up from its position by the door on the way.

Wynonna tried to follow, to be a good heir even though she wasn’t. But Waverly wrapped her hands around her forearm, holding and tugging on her with all the strength in her tiny body.

“You can’t help! You aren’t the heir!” Like a veil being lifted, the word had weight and meaning.

“Shotgun won’t work. He needs Wyatt’s gun.”

Wynonna gently pried Waverly’s hands loose. “Waverly, go hide.”

“Nonna—”

Wynonna gently cupped Waverly’s delicate face between her hands. “Hide, Baby Girl,” she begged, resting her forehead against hers, drawing strength from their love. “I’ll come find you. I’ll always come find you.” She pressed a kiss to Waverly’s forehead to seal her promised and gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

She picked peacemaker up from amongst the shards of bloodstained glass where Willa had dropped it. It was the first time she had ever held the famed weapon, that was a privilege known only to her Pa and Willa, the heir and future heir. She had imagined though. Had thought that she might feel something… the weight of the curse… the feeling that it was meant for her like Excalibur was meant for Authur in the stories Waverly liked.

But, there was nothing so right or mythical about that moment. There was nothing but fear as the blood-soaked grip settled into her hand, the weighty weapon feeling cumbersome as she raced through the house in her father’s footsteps.

She burst through the door into the cold of the night, the wall of sound, and the lights trained on the house. Through the blinding light, she made out her pa being dragged away, his body almost limp within the grasp of the two men holding him tightly.

“No! No!” Ward whimpered and plead for himself and Willa as he watched the one he’d heard called Malcolm carrying her limp, lifeless body over his shoulder, his vile promises of what he was going to do to her body, dead or alive, crackling through the air.

Wynonna raised peacemaker, her hands trembling with fear and the weight of the cumbersome weapon. She sighted down the barrel as she has been taught and pulled back on the trigger.

The weapon boomed out, filling the air before her with a billow of smoke and the sharp scent of gunpowder.

Within the unyielding grip of the revenant’s, her pa’s body arched back in pain… and then he slumped forward, his head hanging down, pulling them off balance for a moment. Before Wynonna’s horrified gaze, a bloom of wet, glistening darkness spread across his back, sticking the dark fabric of his uniform shirt to his back around the hole the bullet had torn into him.

Peacemaker trembled in her hands, a blankness settling like a white noise of realisation that blocked out the sneering words of the revenants, Waverly’s screams and the distant wail of sirens.

**********

Randy felt numb inside as he turned his back on his family and listened to Shorty’s trembling voice on the other end of the phone.

“It’s seriously fucked up, Nedley… That crazy bastard, Bobo warned us that something was going down but by the time we got the cops to get off their asses it was too late. Wynonna and Waverly are safe with Gus and Curtis… But, Willa… There’s no sign of her. They’re talking about taking out a search party and dogs when it gets light enough.”

“Dad? Is anything wrong? Is- are Wynonna and Waves okay?”

“Everything is fine, honey. Emily, could you take them to grab a cookie while I finish up my call?”

He waited for the excited chatter as cookies were dolled out to reach his ears before turning his attention back to his friend. “Keep me up to date on everything if you can, Shorty.”

“I will. I wish you were here, Randy. Not one of those idiots is fit to run that station without you around. If you ever find your way back here, your favourite stool will always be waiting for you.”

“Good to know,” he smiled wanly, raking his hand through his hair as he said his goodbyes and hung up the phone.

Fishing a plain white business card out of his wallet, he ran his finger across the surface to reveal a number that matched no area code or length he had ever seen before. He quickly tapped it out on his phone and waited.

The phone clicked and warbled and then, fell silent in a heavy way that felt like it was being listened to.

“Speak.”

“I’ll take the job.”

“That is good to hear. Welcome to the Black Badge Division, Agent Nedley.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN - Poor Waverly, it never dawned on me until I was about to write this chapter that Ward and (until they found out otherwise) Willa were murdered on the day before her birthday. I find it hard to believe that Ward would have celebrated it anyway but maybe it is why Wynonna has a hard time remembering when Waverly's birthday is.


End file.
